How ‘Trump Accounts' With $1,000 Savings for Babies Would Work
The funds were originally known as ' MAGA Accounts ' but renamed in the legislation narrowly approved by the House of Representatives in May. Under the bill, now under consideration by the Senate, the accounts would be invested in US equities and locked up until the child turns 18. They're meant to defray the costs of higher education, training programs, small business loans or first-time home purchases.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
a minute ago
- Los Angeles Times
9th Circuit keeps freeze on Southern California ICE patrols
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a stinging blow to the Trump administration's mass deportation project Friday night in a fiery opinion upholding a lower court's block on 'roving patrols' across much of Southern California. 'If, as Defendants suggest, they are not conducting stops that lack reasonable suspicion, they can hardly claim to be irreparably harmed by an injunction aimed at preventing a subset of stops not supported by reasonable suspicion,' the panel wrote. The ruling leaves in place a temporary restraining order barring masked and heavily armed agents from snatching people off the streets of Southern California without first establishing reasonable suspicion that they are in the U.S. illegally. Under the 4th Amendment, reasonable suspicion cannot be based solely on race, ethnicity, language, location or employment, either alone or in combination, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of Los Angeles wrote in her original order. 9th Circuit Judges Marsha S. Berzon, Jennifer Sung and Ronald M. Gould agreed. 'There is no predicate action that the individual plaintiffs would need to take, other than simply going about their lives, to potentially be subject to the challenged stops,' the opinion said. Fourth Amendment injunctions are hard to win, experts say. Plaintiffs must show not only that they were hurt, but that they are likely to be hurt again in the same way in the future. One way to meet that test in court is to show the injury is the product of a government policy. Throughout a hearing Monday, the appellate judges repeatedly probed that question, roughly doubling the administration's time to respond in an effort to get an answer. 'After the district court injunction here, the secretary of Homeland Security said, 'We are going to continue doing what we're doing' — so that's not a policy?' Berzon asked. 'The policy is to follow the 4th Amendment and to require reasonable suspicion,' said Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Yaakov Roth. Roth also rebuffed questions about a 3,000-arrests-per-day quota first touted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in May. In a memo to the panel on Wednesday, Roth clarified that 'no such goal' had been established. The court rejected that argument Friday, writing that 'no official statement or express policy is required' to prove one exists. 'Agents have conducted many stops in the Los Angeles area within a matter of weeks ... some repeatedly in the same location,' the opinion said, making the likelihood of future stops 'considerable.' The ruling scolded the Department of Justice for 'misreading' the restraining order it sought to block, and said it 'mischaracterized' Judge Frimpong's order. And it rejected the government's central claim that its law enforcement mandate would be 'chilled' by the district court's order. 'Defendants have failed to establish that they will be 'chilled' from their enforcement efforts at all, let alone in a manner that constitutes the 'irreparable injury' required to support a stay pending appeal,' the panel wrote. The case is still in its early phases, with hearings set for a preliminary injunction in September. But the 'shock and awe' campaign of chaotic public arrests that first gripped Southern California on June 6 has all but ceased in the seven counties covered by Frimpong's order: Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. 'The underlying 4th Amendment law is not complicated,' said Mohammad Tajsar of the ACLU of Southern California — part of a coalition of civil rights groups and individual attorneys challenging cases of three immigrants and two U.S. citizens swept up in chaotic arrests. 'Even a more conservative panel would have been concerned about what the government is doing.' Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, whose city was among a number of Southern California municipalities allowed to join the lawsuit this week, celebrated the news. 'Today is a victory for the rule of law and for the city of Los Angeles,' Bass said. 'Los Angeles will stand together against this administration's efforts to break up families who contribute every single day to the life, the culture and the economy of our great city.' The Trump administration has previously signaled its intent to fight judicial limits on its deportation efforts any way it can. It was not immediately clear where an appeal would proceed.
2 minutes ago
Rural US high schools are offering more college-level classes, but college can still be a tough sell
PERRY, N.Y. -- As a student in western New York's rural Wyoming County, Briar Townes honed an artistic streak that he hopes to make a living from one day. In high school, he clicked with a college-level drawing and painting class. But despite the college credits he earned, college isn't part of his plan. Since graduating from high school in June, he has been overseeing an art camp at the county's Arts Council. If that doesn't turn into a permanent job, there is work at Creative Food Ingredients, known as the 'cookie factory' for the way it makes the town smell like baking cookies, or at local factories like American Classic Outfitters, which designs and sews athletic uniforms. 'My stress is picking an option, not finding an option,' he said. Even though rural students graduate from high school at higher rates than their peers in cities and suburbs, fewer of them go on to college. Many rural school districts, including the one in Perry that Townes attends, have begun offering college-level courses and working to remove academic and financial obstacles to higher education, with some success. But college doesn't hold the same appeal for students in rural areas where they often would need to travel farther for school, parents have less college experience themselves, and some of the loudest political voices are skeptical of the need for higher education. College enrollment for rural students has remained largely flat in recent years, despite the district-level efforts and stepped-up recruitment by many universities. About 55% of rural U.S. high school students who graduated in 2023 enrolled in college, according to National Clearinghouse Research Center data. That's compared to 64% of suburban graduates and 59% of urban graduates. College can make a huge difference in earning potential. An American man with a bachelor's degree earns an estimated $900,000 more over his lifetime than a peer with a high school diploma, research by the Social Security Administration has found. For women, the difference is about $630,000. A lack of a college degree is no obstacle to opportunity in places such as Wyoming County, where people like to say there are more cows than people. The dairy farms, potato fields and maple sugar houses are a source of identity and jobs for the county just east of Buffalo. 'College has never really been, I don't know, a necessity or problem in my family,' said Townes, the middle of three children whose father has a tattoo shop in Perry. At Perry High School, Superintendent Daryl McLaughlin said the district takes cues from students like Townes, their families and the community, supplementing college offerings with programs geared toward career and technical fields such as the building trades. He said he is as happy to provide reference checks for employers and the military as he is to write recommendations for college applications. 'We're letting our students know these institutions, whether it is a college or whether employers, they're competing for you,' he said. 'Our job is now setting them up for success so that they can take the greatest advantage of that competition, ultimately, to improve their quality of life.' Still, college enrollment in the district has exceeded the national average in recent years, going from 60% of the class of 2022's 55 graduates to 67% of 2024's and 56% of 2025's graduates. The district points to a decision to direct federal pandemic relief money toward covering tuition for students in its Accelerated College Enrollment program — a partnership with Genesee Community College. When the federal money ran out, the district paid to keep it going. 'This is a program that's been in our community for quite some time, and it's a program our community supports,' McLaughlin said. About 15% of rural U.S. high school students were enrolled in college classes in January 2025 through such dual enrollment arrangements, a slightly lower rate than urban and suburban students, an Education Department survey found. Rural access to dual enrollment is a growing area of focus as advocates seek to close gaps in access to higher education. The College in High School Alliance this year announced funding for seven states to develop policy to expand programs for rural students. Around the country, many students feel jaded by the high costs of college tuition. And Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value of college, polls have shown, with Republicans, the dominant party in rural America, losing confidence in higher education at higher rates than Democrats. 'Whenever you have this narrative that 'college is bad, college is bad, these professors are going to indoctrinate you,' it's hard,' said Andrew Koricich, executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. 'You have to figure out, how do you crack through that information ecosphere and say, actually, people with a bachelor's degree, on average, earn 65% more than people with a high school diploma only?' In much of rural America, about 21% of people over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree, compared to about 36% of adults in other areas, according to a government analysis of U.S. Census findings. In rural Putnam County, Florida, about 14% of adults have a bachelor's degree. That doesn't stop principal Joe Theobold from setting and meeting an annual goal of 100% college admission for students at Q.I. Roberts Jr.-Sr. High School. Paper mills and power plants provide opportunities for a middle class life in the county, where the cost of living is low. But Theobold tells students the goal of higher education 'is to go off and learn more about not only the world, but also about yourself.' 'You don't want to be 17 years old, determining what you're going to do for the rest of your life,' he said. Families choose the magnet school because of its focus on higher education, even though most of the district's parents never went to a college. Many students visit college campuses through Camp Osprey, a University of North Florida program that helps students experience college dorms and dining halls. In upstate New York, high school junior Devon Wells grew up on his family farm in Perry but doesn't see his future there. He's considering a career in welding, or as an electrical line worker in South Carolina, where he heard the pay might be double what he would make at home. None of his plans require college, he said. 'I grew up on a farm, so that's all hands-on work. That's really all I know and would want to do,' Devon said. Neither his nor Townes' parents have pushed one way or the other, they said. 'I remember them talking to me like, `Hey, would you want to go to college?' I remember telling them, 'not really,'' Townes said. He would have listened if a college recruiter reached out, he said, but wouldn't be willing to move very far.
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's tariffs are sending African countries into China's hands
Africa is adjusting to the new reality of US President Donald Trump's tariffs, with countries on the continent facing some of the highest export charges. But what could become a crisis is an opportunity for United States rival China, which has long courted African countries and is now offering them a lifeline. 'We (Africa) are going straight into the hands of China,' Nigerian economist Bismarck Rewane told CNN. 'That is the unfortunate outcome,' Rewane said of Africa's expected further shift toward China, which has emerged in recent years as the continent's largest bilateral trading partner. Four African nations - Libya, South Africa, Algeria and Tunisia - face some of the steepest tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, with charges on exports ranging from 25% to 30%. Eighteen other countries from the continent were hit with 15% levies, a modified tariff package released Thursday by the White House showed. In April, when the US import levies were first announced, Trump pitched them as 'reciprocal' and targeting countries that he said had trade deficits with the US. But Trump instead based his tariffs on countries' trade deficits with the United States – not the tariffs they charge. South Africa, one of the continent's powerhouses, challenged the imposition of a 30% tariff on its US-bound exports, saying Trump's decision was not based on 'an accurate representation of available trade data.' An opportunity for China China has offered to soften the impact of US tariffs on Africa, saying in June it would halt charges on imports for nearly all its African partners. 'There is no other opportunity for African countries to strengthen South-South trade (among developing nations) than now,' South African researcher Neo Letswalo told CNN, while urging countries to 'solely turn to China and make it the next US.' 'America is gradually forfeiting its global leadership status,' Letswalo said, adding that the more countries 'become less dependent on the US, the greater opportunity for China to become an alternative.' Before the tariff deadline, the US did not make a trade deal with any African nation despite efforts from the continent to avoid the tariffs, underscoring Africa's place on the White House's priority list. Letswalo described America's failure to negotiate a deal with Africa as 'an open goal for China.' The impact of Trump's tariffs is already being felt in some of Africa's most buoyant economies and some of the continent's poorest, such as Lesotho, which was slapped with a 15% tariff. It had previously been hit with a 50% tariff – one of the steepest rates – before the charges were modified. Lesotho's Prime Minister Samuel Matekane said in June that the huge tariff, combined with the halt of US aid to the nation of just over 2 million people, 'have crippled industries that previously sustained thousands of jobs.' Trump has described Lesotho, a landlocked nation surrounded by South Africa, as a country 'nobody has ever heard of' – even though trade between the US and Lesotho totaled over $240 million last year, mostly in textiles. Before the tariffs, Lesotho benefited from a US trade agreement that allowed it and other eligible sub-Saharan countries to export goods to the US duty-free. Authorities in Lesotho have declared a two-year national state of disaster over the tariffs, as the country braces for their impact, with the textile industry already grappling with massive job losses. Thousands of roles are also threatened in Lesotho's richer neighbor, South Africa, where citrus growers said they were gripped with 'great anxiety' ahead of the August 1 tariff deadline. In a statement this week, the country's Citrus Growers' Association (CGA) warned that 'job losses will be a certainty' if the tariffs came into effect. It added that, 'hundreds of thousands of cartons of citrus are ready in packhouses to be shipped to the US over the next few weeks,' and that implementing the charges 'will mean most of this fruit will be left unsold.' Other industries in South Africa, such as the automobile sector, also face the risk of economic shocks, analysts said. 'Already, we have companies within the automobile sector threatening to leave (the country) as a result of plummeting business,' Letswalo said. 'The tariffs will add to the burden of pre-existing issues, and if these entities decide to exit South Africa, our already existing unemployment calamities will worsen,' he said. Gwede Mantashe, South Africa's minister of mineral and petroleum resources, told reporters Tuesday that other routes are being sought for South African goods. 'If the US imposes high tariffs, we must look for alternative markets,' he said. 'Our biggest trading partner is China, not the US. The US is number two,' Mantashe added. As South Africa scouts for broader opportunities, however, the citrus growers' group has voiced its reservations, specifically that their products suit designated markets so finding another is not straightforward. Its CEO, Boitshoko Ntshabele, told CNN in a statement that 'the US market remains a priority, and so should improving access to China' and elsewhere. 'There is a deep appreciation of South African citrus by US consumers. Since 2017, our exports to that market have almost doubled. The market has immense potential,' Ntshabele added. Is reliance on China risky? Letswalo believes there are accompanying risks behind the enticing option of relying on Beijing to cushion the impact of Trump's tariffs. Alternating US with China 'could be risky,' he said, 'especially for some nascent industries within the (African) countries.' 'If they're not protected, Chinese products will flood and outcompete them as many African countries are price sensitive markets,' he warned. China has imposed some imbalanced trade deals of its own in Africa with trade deficits skewed in its favor, according to the China-Global South Project (CGSP), an organization monitoring China's engagement with developing countries. Additionally, the bulk of Beijing's exports to Africa comprise mainly manufactured products, while the continent's exports to China are commonly raw materials. South Africa's Ramaphosa advocated for balanced trade with China when he met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing last year. Letswalo advised that, while Africa leans on China for trade, it must also seek domestic alternatives. He recommended a swift implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), an agreement signed by nations on the continent to boost trade among themselves. Although established in 2020, implementing AfCFTA has been slow, with just over 20 countries of the continent's 55 trading under the deal. Rewane believes that the US tariffs could inspire Africa 'to build economic resilience and be less dependent on lopsided trade.' Above all, he added, the continent must be 'more inward-looking rather than outward-dependent.' Sign in to access your portfolio
