More artists have canceled scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center following the addition of President Donald Trump’s name to the facility, with jazz supergroup The Cookers pulling out of a planned New Year’s Eve concert, and the institution’s president saying the cancellations belie the artists’ unwillingness to see their music as crossing lines of political disparity.

The Cookers, a jazz supergroup performing together for nearly two decades, announced their withdrawal from “A Jazz New Year’s Eve” on their website, saying the “decision has come together very quickly” and acknowledging frustration from those who may have planned to attend.

The group didn’t mention the building’s renaming or the Trump administration but did say that, when they return to performing, they wanted to ensure that “the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it,” reiterating a commitment “to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”

The group may not have addressed the Kennedy Center situation directly, but one of its members has. On Saturday, saxophone player Billy Harper said in comments posted on the Jazz Stage Facebook page that he “would never even consider performing in a venue bearing a name (and being controlled by the kind of board) that represents overt racism and deliberate destruction of African American music and culture. The same music I devoted my life to creating and advancing.”

According to the White House, Trump’s handpicked board approved the renaming. Harper said both the board, “as well as the name displayed on the building itself represents a mentality and practices I always stood against. And still do, today more than ever.”

Richard Grenell, a Trump ally whom the president chose to head the Kennedy Center after he forced out the previous leadership, posted Monday night on X that “The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership,” intimating the bookings were made under the Biden administration.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Grenell said Tuesday the ”last minute cancellations prove that they were always unwilling to perform for everyone — even those they disagree with politically,” adding that the Kennedy Center had been “flooded with inquiries from real artists willing to perform for everyone and who reject political statements in their artistry.”

There was no immediate word from Kennedy Center officials if the entity would pursue legal action against the group, as Grenell said it would after musician Chuck Redd canceled a Christmas Eve performance. Following that withdrawal, in which Redd cited the Kennedy Center renaming, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages for what he called a “political stunt.”

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him. Scholars have said any changes to the building’s name would need congressional approval; the law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.

Associated Press writers Steven Sloan and Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/30/musicians-cancel-kennedy-center-concerts/ 

IRS CEO Says 94% Of Middle-Class Taxpayers Will See Tax Relief Next Year

Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/30/2025 – 10:30

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/irs-ceo-says-94-percent-middle-class-taxpayers-will-see-tax-relief-next-year 

Northwestern announced Tuesday it has hired longtime college and NFL coach Chip Kelly to be the offensive coordinator on coach David Braun’s staff.

Kelly, 62, had a highly successful stint as Oregon’s head coach from 2009-12, going 46-7 and taking the Ducks to the national championship game in his final season. He also has been a head coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers and UCLA.

He was fired in November as the Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator after just 11 games. Before that, he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Ohio State’s 2024 national championship team.

“This is a seminal moment for our program under David Braun’s direction and another indication that we are prepared to pursue the highest standard of excellence in all that we do,” Northwestern athletic director Mark Jackson said in a statement. “Our student-athletes perform at an exceptional level academically and competitively, and we proudly maintain one of the strongest retention rates in the country, due in large part to Coach Braun’s leadership and the culture he has established.”

Kelly replaces Zach Lujan, the former South Dakota State offensive coordinator who served as Northwestern’s OC and quarterbacks coach for two seasons.

Northwestern finished the season 7-6 after a 34-7 win over Central Michigan in the GameAbove Sports Bowl. But the Wildcats’ push toward a bowl game was driven largely by the defense.

The Northwestern offense ranks 96th in the FBS in both scoring (23.4 points per game) and total yards (346.1 per game). Quarterback Preston Stone, a graduate transfer from SMU, threw for 2,400 yards with 17 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

“This program and university are clearly on the rise, and the values of the people and this place align with my own,” Kelly said in a statement. “I am grateful for the opportunity. There is tremendous potential under Coach Braun’s leadership, and I’m ready to contribute to this team.

“There is great momentum around the program, and the opening of the new Ryan Field reflects Northwestern’s commitment to excellence and innovation. It will be a major asset as we continue to move forward, and I am excited to get to Evanston.”

Northwestern is set to open the new $862 million Ryan Field next season.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/30/northwestern-chip-kelly/ 

If history is a guide, Republicans stand a good chance of losing control of the House of Representatives in 2026. They have just a slim majority in the chamber, and the incumbent party usually gives up seats in midterm elections.

President Donald Trump, whose loss of the House halfway through his first term led to two impeachments, is trying to keep history from repeating — and doing so in ways his opponents say are intended to manipulate next year’s election landscape.

He has rallied his party to remake congressional maps across the country to create more conservative-leaning House seats, an effort that could end up backfiring on him. He’s directed his administration to target Democratic politicians, activists and donors. And, Democrats worry, he’s flexing his muscles to intervene in the midterms like no administration ever has.

Democrats and other critics point to how Trump has sent the military into Democratic cities over the objections of Democratic mayors and governors. They note that he’s pushed the Department of Homeland Security to be so aggressive that at one point its agents handcuffed a Democratic U.S. senator. And some warn that a Republican-controlled Congress could fail to seat winning candidates if Democrats reclaim the House majority, recalling Trump’s efforts to stay in power even after voters rejected him in 2020, leading to the violent attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

Regarding potential military deployments, Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told The Associated Press: “What he is going to do is send those troops there, and keep them there all the way through the next election, because guess what? If people are afraid of leaving their house, they’re probably not going to leave their house to go vote on Election Day. That’s how he stays in power.”

Military to the polls, or fearmongering?

Democrats sounded similar alarms just before November’s elections, and yet there were no significant incidents. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent Trump antagonist who also warns about a federal crackdown on voting in 2026, predicted that masked immigration agents would show up at the polls in his state, where voters were considering a ballot measure to counter Trump’s redistricting push.

There were no such incidents in November, and the measure to redraw California’s congressional lines in response to Trump’s efforts elsewhere won in a landslide.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the concerns about the midterms come from Democratic politicians who are “fearmongering to score political points with the radical left flank of the Democrat party that they are courting ahead of their doomed-to-fail presidential campaigns.”

She described their concerns as “baseless conspiracy theories.”

Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, denied that Trump was planning to use the military to try to suppress votes.

“I say it is categorically false, will not happen. It’s just wrongheaded,” she told Vanity Fair for an interview that was published earlier in December.

DNC litigation director Dan Freeman said he hasn’t seen an indication that Trump will send immigration enforcement agents to polling places during the midterms, but is wary.

He said the DNC filed public records requests in an attempt to learn more about any such plans and is drafting legal pleadings it could file if Trump sends armed federal agents to the polls or otherwise intervenes in the elections.

“We’re not taking their word for it,” Freeman said in an interview.

States, not presidents, run elections

November’s off-year elections may not be the best indicator of what could lie ahead. They were scattered in a handful of states, and Trump showed only modest interest until late in the fall when his Department of Justice announced it was sending federal monitors to California and New Jersey to observe voting in a handful of counties. It was a bureaucratic step that had no impact on voting, even as it triggered alarm from Democrats.

Alexandra Chandler, the legal director of Defend Democracy, a group that has clashed with Trump over his role in elections, said she was heartened by the lack of drama during the 2025 voting.

“We have so many positive signs we can look to,” Chandler said, citing not only a quiet election but GOP senators’ resistance to Trump’s demands to eliminate the filibuster and the widespread resistance to Trump’s demand that television host Jimmy Kimmel lose his job because of his criticism of the president. “There are limits” on Trump’s power, she noted.

“We will have elections in 2026,” Chandler said. “People don’t have to worry about that.”

Under the Constitution, a president has limited tools to intervene in elections, which are run by the states. Congress can help set rules for federal elections, but states administer their own election operations and oversee the counting of ballots.

When Trump tried to singlehandedly revise election rules with a sweeping executive order shortly after returning to office, the courts stepped in and stopped him, citing the lack of a constitutional role for the president. Trump later promised another order, possibly targeting mail ballots and voting machines, but it has yet to materialize.

DOJ voter data request ‘should frighten everybody’

Still, there’s plenty of ways a president can cause problems, said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor.

Trump unsuccessfully pushed Georgia’s top election official to “find” him enough votes to be declared the winner there in 2020 and could try similar tactics in Republican-dominated states in November. Likewise, Hasen said, Trump could spread misinformation to undermine confidence in vote tallies, as he has done routinely ahead of elections.

It’s harder to do that in more lopsided contests, as many in 2025 turned into, Hasen noted.

“Concerns about Trump interfering in 2026 are real; they’re not frivolous,” Hasen said. “They’re also not likely, but these are things people need to be on guard for.”

One administration move that has alarmed election officials is a federal demand from his Department of Justice for detailed voter data from the states. The administration has sued the District of Columbia and at least 21 states, most of them controlled by Democrats, after they refused to turn over all the information the DOJ sought.

“What the DOJ is trying to do is something that should frighten everybody across the political spectrum,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department voting rights attorney and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. “They’re trying to use the power of the executive to bully states into turning over highly sensitive data — date of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license, the Holy Trinity of identity theft — hand it over to the DOJ for who knows what use.”

‘Voter protection’ vs ‘election integrity’

Voting rights lawyers and election officials have been preparing for months for the midterms, trying to ensure there are ways to counter misinformation and ensure state election systems are easy to explain. Both major parties are expected to stand up significant campaigns around the mechanics of voting: Democrats mounting what they call a “voter protection” effort to monitor for problems while Republicans focus on what they call “election integrity.”

Freeman, the DNC litigation director who previously worked in the DOJ’s voting section, said his hiring this year was part of a larger effort by the DNC to beef up its in-house legal efforts ahead of the midterms. He said the committee has been filling gaps in voting rights law enforcement that the DOJ has typically covered, including informing states that they can’t illegally purge citizens from their voter rolls.

Tina Barton, co-chair of the Committee on Safe and Secure Elections, a coalition of law enforcement and election officials who advise jurisdictions on de-escalation and how to respond to emergencies at polling places, says interest in the group’s trainings has “exploded” in recent weeks.

“There’s a lot at stake, and that’s going to cause a lot of emotions,” Barton said.

Associated Press writers Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/30/democrats-trump-interfering-midterms/ 

Jennings: “Until Somebody In Power Goes To Jail”, Blue State Fraud Won’t Stop

Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/30/2025 – 09:50

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jennings-until-somebody-power-goes-jail-blue-state-fraud-wont-stop 

CIA Drone Carried Out First Known Land Strike On Venezuela 

Tyler Durden
Tue, 12/30/2025 – 09:35

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cia-drone-carried-out-first-known-land-strike-venezuela 

Wall Street is largely unchanged early Tuesday as trading for 2025 nudges closer to the finish line. Gold, silver and copper all resumed their ascent after steep declines Monday.

Futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq were all down less than 0.1% before the bell.

Gold futures gained 1.7% early Tuesday after falling 4.6% the day before. It’s up more than 64% this year.

Silver futures gained 7.7% after slumping 8.7% on Monday and have more than doubled in 2025.

The precious metals fell back on Monday when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of the world’s largest trading floors for commodities, asked traders to put up more cash to make bets on precious metals.

Copper futures also clawed back some of Monday’s losses, rising 3.1%. Even with a 4.7% decline to start the week, copper futures have soared more than 42% this year, on pace for the largest gain in 16 years. Copper is critical to global energy infrastructure, and demand is expected to keep growing as the development of artificial intelligence technology puts more of a strain on data centers and the energy grid.

Mining companies, which tumbled with gold and silver Monday, also bounced back early Tuesday, with Freeport-McMoRan and Newmont both up more than 2%.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi rang out the final session for 2025 in a traditional year-end ceremony.

“By realizing a Japanese economy that earns the trust of investors around the world, we will create a virtuous cycle in which global capital flows into Japan,” Takaichi said.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.4% to 50,339.48, its first year-end close above 50,000. It ended 2025 up nearly 25%.

With just two trading days left before the year ends, most big investors have closed out their positions and volume has been thin. Most global markets will be closed Thursday, New Year’s day, and some will also be closed Wednesday and Friday.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX was nearly unchanged at 24,348.38. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1% to 9.876.73, while the CAC 40 in Paris had barely budged at 8,112.37.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.9% to 25,854.60, while the Shanghai Composite index was virtually unchanged at 3,965.51.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% lower to 8,717.10.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2% to 4,214.17, while Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.4%.

India’s Sensex was down less than 0.1%.

U.S. crude oil gained 27 cents to $58.35 per barrel, but is down almost 20% this year. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 26 cents to $61.75 per barrel.

AP video journalist Mayuko Ono in Tokyo contributed to this report.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/30/wall-street-holding-pattern/ 

A man was arrested Monday night after he failed to yield to a police vehicle with its light activated and caused a traffic crash in the Avalon Park neighborhood, Chicago police said.

Shortly before midnight Tuesday, officers were headed west in a squad car with the lights activated in the 8300 block of South Stony Island Avenue when a driver in a silver sedan failed to yield the right of way at an intersection, causing an accident, police said.

Two officers were taken to an area hospital and listed in good condition, police said.

The driver of the sedan was taken into custody, and charges and citations were pending, police said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/30/police-crash-avalon-park/ 

A teenage girl was wounded overnight in an accidental shooting in the Oakland neighborhood on the South Side, Chicago police said.

Shortly before 3:15 a.m., officers responded to a call of a person shot in the 4100 block of South Ellis Avenue where they found a teenage girl between 15 to 17 years of age inside a building with a gunshot wound near the right eye, police said.

The girl was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital where she was listed in fair condition. A preliminary investigation revealed the girl was wounded when a gun accidentally discharged, police said.

A weapon was discovered at the scene. Detectives are investigating.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/30/gun-violence-south-side/