Top 5 US news stories
January 13 2026
Trump Threatens Tariffs on Iran Trading Partners as Crackdown Death Toll Reaches 3,000
Trump Pivots to Affordability Agenda with Credit Card Rate Cap and Housing Reforms
AI Data Centers Strain Northeast Power Grid and Drive National Emissions Spike
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Closes After 240 Years Following Labor Dispute and Court Ruling
New York Welfare Fraud Could Reach Ten Times Minnesota's Scale, Costing Taxpayers $1.2 Billion
Trump Threatens Tariffs on Iran Trading Partners as Crackdown Death Toll Reaches 3,000
Iranian security forces have escalated their response to mass protests, with government forces opening fire on unarmed demonstrators using automatic weapons, according to eyewitnesses and hospital workers. A senior Iranian health ministry official said approximately 3,000 people have been killed across the country, including hundreds of security officers, as authorities impose a near-total communication blackout while videos show rows of body bags emerging from hospitals dealing with what one doctor described as a "mass-casualty situation." President Donald Trump announced immediate 25% tariffs on any country conducting business with Iran, potentially affecting over 100 nations including major economies China, Turkey, Pakistan, and India that were among Iran's largest trading partners in early 2025. The tariff announcement followed Trump's statement that he was considering military operations in Iran and that the Islamic republic was approaching his threshold for intervention as the death toll from the government's crackdown continues to climb.
NYT, FT
Trump Pivots to Affordability Agenda with Credit Card Rate Cap and Housing Reforms
President Trump has unveiled a series of proposals aimed at reducing the cost of living, including a credit card interest rate cap that prompted Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren to confirm he called her after she criticized him during a speech on affordability. The president's initiatives include banning large investors from buying single-family homes, directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds to lower home-buyer rates, and developing plans to dominate Venezuela's oil industry in efforts to reduce energy costs for American consumers. Trump also posted on social media Monday night that he never wants "Americans to pay higher Electricity bills because of Data Centers" and that big tech companies building data centers "must pay their own way."
WSJ
AI Data Centers Strain Northeast Power Grid and Drive National Emissions Spike
The rapid expansion of AI data centers is threatening grid reliability in PJM's 13-state northeastern region from New Jersey to Kentucky, which serves 67 million people, with power demand projected to grow 4.8% annually and officials warning that rolling blackouts during heat waves or deep freezes may be necessary to prevent infrastructure damage. The surge in electricity consumption, particularly from Northern Virginia's "Data Center Alley," has forced older power plants offline faster than replacements can be built while driving up consumer rates, prompting tech giants including Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft to oppose proposed rules requiring data centers to build their own power sources or reduce operations during demand peaks. America's greenhouse gas emissions increased 2.4 percent in 2025 following two years of decline, driven primarily by a 13 percent surge in coal consumption as electric utilities nationwide rushed to meet unusually fast electricity demand growth. The Rhodium Group analysis attributed the emissions increase largely to the expansion of power-hungry data centers supporting artificial intelligence operations, with forecasts predicting U.S. power demand in 2030 will be 25% higher than 2023 levels as massive facilities continue spreading across West Texas, the Southeast, and Southwest regions.
WSJ, NYT
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Closes After 240 Years Following Labor Dispute and Court Ruling
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will print its final edition May 3 after the U.S. Supreme Court denied its request to stay a federal appeals court order requiring the newspaper to adhere to terms of an earlier labor agreement with its union. The closure of one of America's oldest newspapers, first published west of the Allegheny Mountains, adds to a two-decade decline that has reduced the nation's newspaper count from more than 7,300 in 2005 to fewer than 4,500 in 2025, according to Northwestern University's Local News Initiative.
Washington Post
New York Welfare Fraud Could Reach Ten Times Minnesota's Scale, Costing Taxpayers $1.2 Billion
New York's Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program has cost taxpayers at least $179 million in identified fraud over the past decade, with investigators warning the actual losses could be ten times larger than Minnesota's $1 billion daycare fraud scandal. The program, which requires no qualifications or medical certifications for caregivers and spent at least $1 billion on middlemen, has seen costs quadruple from $2.5 billion in 2019 to $9.1 billion by 2023, with cases including a Manhattan man who collected $348,000 for his mother's care while she lived in Bangladesh and his brother posed as her during inspections.
NY Post
January 13 1999 Michael Jordan retires for a second time
Found a mistake? Have a news tip or feedback to share? Contact our newsroom using the button below:
citizen journal offers three flagship products: a daily national news summary, a daily Kansas news summary, and local news and school board summaries from 34 cities across 5 states. Use the links in the header to navigate to national, kansas, and local coverage. Subscribe to each, some, or all to get an email when new issues are published for FREE!
Brought to you by (click me!)
Sources
