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Tag: proposes

Eagles star Saquon Barkley proposes to longtime girlfriend days before Super Bowl LIX: report

Before he chases his first Super Bowl ring, Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley was reportedly down on one knee giving a ring to his longtime girlfriend, Anna Congdon.

Barkley is now engaged to Congdon, according to People, as he checks off a major life moment ahead of his biggest career game to date as he and the Eagles head to New Orleans to face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX this upcoming Sunday.

“I can’t be the athlete I am and have the success I have so in my career without the help of her,” Barkley told the outlet of Congdon.

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Saquan Barkley with Anna Congdon and daughter Jada Clare Barkley on the red carpet before the NFL Honors show at Resorts World Theatre. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)

The two share two children together, daughter Jada, 6, and son Saquon Jr., 2, and their pre-game ritual of special handshakes and kisses has gone viral in Barkley’s first season with the Eagles.

Barkley and Congdon met at Penn State and have been going strong since 2017. Barkley told People that they will “just sit back and laugh sometimes when [their kids are] over there playing and just smile and think about where everything started.”

It started with the New York Giants, who took Barkley second overall in the 2018 NFL Draft after a stellar Nittany Lions career. However, after a rollercoaster six seasons in New York, which ended badly after not getting what he wanted contract-wise, Barkley signed with the Eagles in free agency this past offseason.

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Clearly, it was the right move for the running back, as he could have the best running back season of all-time statistically depending on his performance against the Chiefs.

Personally, the move has been something Barkley says his family has loved, with the city of Philadelphia embracing him right away despite being their rival for years.

Saquon Barkley and Anna Congdon attend Serena Williams’ last match at Arthur Ashe Stadium during Day 5 of the US Open 2022, 4th Grand Slam of the season, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sept. 2, 2022 in Queens, New York City. (Jean Catuffe/GC Images)

Barkley and his family were at Lincoln Financial Field sharing quite the moment when green and white confetti rained down on the Eagles after dominating the Washington Commanders, 55-23, in the NFC Championship.

“If I could wrap my arms around this memory, I would…” Congdon captioned an Instagram post of her family celebrating the victory that put them in Super Bowl LIX. Barkley commented, “Love you,” with a heart emoji.

It has been quite a celebratory year for Barkley, who led the NFL in rushing yards with over 2,000, and it could continue on his 28th birthday, which just so happens to fall on Super Bowl LIX.

“The best birthday gift you can have is playing in the Super Bowl and the only thing better than that is winning the Super Bowl on your Birthday,” he said to People.

Barkley added that he is not focused on his birthday plans at all, hoping to “continue to play at a high level” to help his team beat the Chiefs, a team chasing NFL history as the only squad to win three straight Lombardi Trophies.

Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi. (Tubi)

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Barkley scored three touchdowns for the Eagles in the NFC Championship victory over the Commanders, and he certainly will try to do so again in New Orleans, where his now-fiancee and family will be cheering him on.

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Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

February 3, 2025
‘Newsom-proof California’: Lawmaker proposes bill to strengthen fight against illegal immigration, trafficking

While legislators in the Democratic trifecta are trying to pass bills to “Trump-proof” the state, California Republican Kate Sanchez plans to introduce a bill that would crack down on what may be a “sanctuary state” loophole protecting criminal illegal immigrants involved in sex-trafficking minors.

“It would eliminate all of the unnecessary restrictions for local law enforcement to cooperate with federal law enforcement in order to go after those that have been accused or convicted of sex trafficking of minors, and currently there is a clause that they cannot communicate as openly as possible,” Sanchez told Fox News Digital in an interview.

NEWSOM BILL COULD SPEND TAX MONEY TO DEFEND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM TRUMP DEPORTATION PUSH: CA LAWMAKER

California Republican Assemblymember Kate Sanchez discusses her new bill to crack down on sex traffickers that may be covered under a state penal exception. (Fox News Digital Screenshot/AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

These restrictions are part of California’s “sanctuary state” policies, which are designed to limit state and local law enforcement’s involvement in federal immigration enforcement. For her part, the specific provisions that Sanchez wants to amend are found in the California Values Act (SB 54), which was enacted in 2017, that restricts local law enforcement agencies from using resources to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect or arrest individuals for immigration enforcement purposes.

There are exceptions in SB 54 for individuals convicted of certain serious or violent crimes. However, sex trafficking is not always classified as a violent felony under California law – making it so that some convicted sex traffickers may not meet the criteria for local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities – potentially thwarting deportation efforts.

Sanchez argues this creates a loophole that could allow illegal immigrants who are involved in sex trafficking to remain in the U.S. after serving their sentence. In 2023, Newsom signed Senate Bill 14 (SB 14), reclassifying the trafficking of a minor as a “serious” felony, but other forms of human trafficking may still not be considered violent felonies under state law.

“So, we want to make sure we remove that piece of the penal code and allow them to communicate and do their job fully,” Sanchez said.

‘DEVASTATING’: CALIFORNIA HAD RECORD RAINFALL LAST YEAR, BUT LACKED INFRASTRUCTURE TO STORE IT

President Donald Trump, center, speaks as first lady Melania Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom listen after arriving on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Sanchez’s bill may align well with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan currently underway, but it faces an uphill battle in her state legislature, which is dominated by Democrats. Currently, Democratic assemblymembers – in collaboration with Newsom – are trying to pass a series of bills that would bolster the state’s legal defense against the Trump administration. The State Senate already passed the bills last week.

“It is an uphill battle in Sacramento, but I do feel the tide is turning[.]”

Democrats were set to pass the $50 million special session bill Thursday, but Assembly lawmakers reportedly blocked the package over concerns that there may be changes that need to be made to the immigration-related proposal. At issue is Newsom’s $25 million allocation for nonprofit organizations to defend illegal immigrants from deportation, and whether those funds would be used as well for criminal illegal immigrants.

Newsom’s office told Fox News Digital previously that no funds would go to criminal illegal immigrants.

NEWSOM PROPOSES $25M FROM STATE LEGISLATURE TO ‘TRUMP-PROOF’ CALIFORNIA

Illegal migrants are detained by the U.S. Coast Guard in Southern California. ( USCG Southern California via X)

Newsom called a special legislative session quickly after Trump’s electoral victory to secure additional funding for the state’s legal defense against the administration. Reacting to the development on his TruthSocial account at the time, Trump said, “He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election.”

Sanchez – who says she has been shut out of the legislature’s Hispanic Caucus because she’s a Republican – said the legislature should be focusing on “fireproofing” the state, or rather, “Newsom-proofing California.”

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“Take it for what it’s worth, but I genuinely feel like there are victims and there are people in need that we should be advocating for protecting our most vulnerable, protecting the innocence of our children,” Sanchez said. “It is an uphill battle in Sacramento, but I do feel the tide is turning, and I know we will be looking to our federal counterparts to be helpful in this matter as well.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.

Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.

January 31, 2025
Risch proposes bill to block US foreign aid from funding abortions

EXCLUSIVE: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch and Republican senators on Thursday are expected to roll out a measure that would prohibit the use of U.S. foreign aid funds for abortions, Fox News Digital has learned.

The bill, titled “the American Values Act,” would permanently enact and expand existing prohibitions on the use of U.S. foreign assistance to pay for the performance or promotion of abortion services overseas.

WHITE HOUSE STILL COMMITTED TO FREEZING ‘WOKE’ FUNDS DESPITE RESCINDING OMB MEMO

The bill would restrict the use of foreign assistance funds to perform abortions, promote or lobby for or against abortions and forced sterilization.

The bill would also ensure U.S. foreign aid funds cannot be used for biomedical research relating to abortions.

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Republican senators are expected to roll out a measure that would prohibit the use of U.S. foreign aid funds for abortions. (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

The bill also would permanently restrict funds to organizations that support or participate in the management of a program of “coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”

It would also permanently enact restrictions on the use of funds made available to the Peace Corps to pay for abortions.

“American foreign aid should always be used in a way that is in line with American values — and that means that no foreign assistance funds should ever be used to perform or promote abortion services,” Risch told Fox News Digital. “I’m proud to introduce the American Values Act with my colleagues to hold our government accountable to this standard and protect the sanctity of life across the globe.”

STATE DEPT PULLS MILLIONS IN FUNDING FOR ‘CONDOMS IN GAZA,’ AS TRUMP ADMIN LOOKS TO TRIM SPENDING

The legislation is co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Roger Marshall of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rick Scott of Florida, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Steve Daines of Montana, Tim Sheehy of Montana, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.

The introduction of the bill comes after President Donald Trump issued an order to freeze funding flowing from federal agencies that would go towards “woke” initiatives and the “weaponization of government” to improve government efficiency.

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The White House, in rolling out the order, said that the Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to eliminate government spending and waste, identified $37 million that was about to go to the World Health Organization, along with $50 million to “fund condoms in Gaza.”

“That is a preposterous waste of money,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.

January 30, 2025
Trump proposes abolishment of federal income tax, bringing US back to ‘richest period’ in history

‘The Big Money Show’ discusses President Donald Trump’s ‘aggressive’ economic agenda.

Pitching a monumental and potentially controversial proposal to his Republican allies, President Donald Trump is seemingly floating the idea of scrapping federal income taxes altogether.

“We had no income tax. The income tax came in…1913. As I said in my speech last week, instead of taxing our citizens to enrich foreign nations, we should be tariffing and taxing foreign nations to enrich our citizens,” Trump said during his conference address in Doral, Florida, on Monday.

“It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” he added. “You know, the United States in 1870 to 1913, all tariffs. And that was the richest period in the history of the United States, relatively speaking.”

The first federal income tax was passed on February 25, 1913, as part of the 16th Amendment. This gave Congress constitutional authority to levy taxes on corporate and individual income, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIST TEASES THE ‘BIGGEST’ FISCAL REFORM ‘AMERICAN HAS EVER SEEN’

U.S. Treasury data indicates that $4.92 trillion was collected in federal income taxes for the 2023 filing year. But as Trump plans to create a new “External Revenue Service” that would be tasked with collecting revenue from tariffs, economists and market experts seem mixed, with some pushing back and noting that U.S. importers bear the brunt of the cost of tariffs rather than firms overseas.

President Donald Trump pitched the idea to eliminate federal income tax during his address at a GOP conference in Doral, Florida, on Monday. (Getty Images)

“Tariffs are not external revenue; they are taxes on U.S. importers that shrink both the U.S. economy and U.S. incomes. Higher tariffs will create a drag on the U.S. economy and will threaten to offset the benefits of tax cuts elsewhere. They should not be relied upon as a major source of tax revenue,” Tax Foundation Vice President Erica York previously told FOX Business.

“Markets like certainty. So if you tell me, ‘10% tariff,’ if I’m a company like GM, I can handle that,” Taylor Riggs, “The Big Money Show” co-host, pointed out on Tuesday. “If you tell me that every month it’s going up by 2.5%, I have a hard time planning around that, because how do I figure out: do I buy the goods now? What if the tariffs go up? Is it a negotiating tool?”

“This whole idea about eliminating the income tax, or redefining it and coming in with a 10% tariff tax and giving an income tax break to Americans, encourages them to work more, in my opinion, encourages them to spend more, in my opinion,” Slatestone Wealth chief market strategist Kenny Polcari also chimed in.

Trump senior advisor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro discusses the battle over TikTok and bringing ‘prosperity’ to the United States on ‘The Claman Countdown.’

“So then you end up having a stronger and better economy,” Polcari continued. “I think the market likes it.”

During his successful campaign to return to the White House, Trump touted plans to impose an across-the-board tariff of 10% or 20% – as well as a larger tariff of 60% on goods imported from China.

He also threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, which are both parties to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – a free trade agreement Trump negotiated during his first term as a successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

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Walser Wealth Management President Rebecca Walser and Culture+Group CEO and co-founder Lili Gil Valletta discuss which world leaders will cave to President Trump’s tariff threats on ‘Making Money.’

More recently, President Trump also teased moving nearly 90,000 IRS agents hired under the Biden administration to the border to patrol the area.

Democrats in 2022 approved $80 billion in funding for the IRS, including hiring roughly 87,000 new agents across a 10-year period as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law that year.

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FOX Business’ Eric Revell and Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.

January 29, 2025
California man proposes state secede from the US

A California man is leading the charge to have the state split from the United States.

The office of California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said Marcus Evans can begin collecting signatures to put the questions to voters.

“Should California leave the United States and become a free and independent country?” the question reads.

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Hollywood sign in California. (Joshua Comins/Fox News)

To qualify for the November 2028 ballot, Evans must collect the signatures of at least 546,651 registered voters by July 22. If approved, the measure wouldn’t trigger independence for the Golden State.

Instead it would declare a “vote of no confidence in the United States of America” and an “expression of the will of the people of California” to become an independent country without changing the state’s government or its relationship with the U.S.

In addition, a 20-member commission would be established to study whether California could govern itself and its viability as a nation.

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An aerial view of the California State Capitol on February 01, 2023, in Sacramento, California. (Justin Sullivan/Justin Sullivan)

Secession from the U.S. would require a constitutional amendment, which would need approval from two-thirds of states.

Despite the proposal, the California constitution notes that the state “is an inseparable part of the United States of America.”

“The U.S. Constitution includes neither a mechanism for a state to secede from the United States nor a provision for a single state to be an autonomous nation within the United States,” the California Legislative Analyst’s Office states.

The Golden Gate Bridge is awash in warm light from the setting sun in San Francisco, California, February 13, 2015. (Photo by John Gress/Corbis via Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Evans.

January 29, 2025