Transgender people working in US government see peril under Trump

WASHINGTON — The Air Force lieutenant colonel left the Pentagon one day and returned the next — with a new name and a new gender identity.

Bree Fram remembers the atmosphere in 2020 as welcoming and supportive. Her colleagues brought cookies. When the Pentagon officially changed her gender in employment records, she felt her journey was complete.

Fram is one of thousands of transgender people working openly in government positions, including the Defense and State departments, intelligence agencies and various other federal branches. An estimated 15,000 transgender people work in the military alone. They say acceptance and support has surged in recent years.

But many are now worried that the broad advances they achieved over the last decade will be reversed under President-elect Donald Trump, who has likened gender transition to "mutilation," vowed to roll back job protections and healthcare for trans workers and threatened to reimpose a ban against transgender people serving in the military.

—Los Angeles Times

We looked for the Luigi Mangione tipster. Here’s what happened

ALTOONA, Pa. — The employees at the McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where Luigi Mangione was arrested are understandably wary of reporters.

Mangione was recognized by one of the restaurant’s employees Dec. 9, and the small town — population just over 40,000 — quickly became the center of national headlines. There was a reported $60,000 reward from the FBI and Crime Stoppers for information leading to Mangione’s arrest, but he has to be convicted before the tipster is able to collect.

Galen Wilson, a customer at Triangle Barbershop on 12th Avenue in downtown Altoona, wondered if the McDonald’s employee who alerted police will ever be able to obtain the reward money.

“I heard on the news that the people who turned him in are not going to get the money,” Wilson said. “That’s what I started complaining about.”

—The Baltimore Sun

Immigration drives 68,000 increase in Illinois population, new Census report shows, even though residents keep moving out of state

CHICAGO — Illinois gained nearly 68,000 people from 2023 to 2024, reversing a recent trend of population losses, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday. Much of the increase was due to an influx of migrants, a trend that played out across the country.

The increase of 67,899, or .5%, was small, and paled in comparison to the growth of 563,000 in Texas, but the numeric growth was the most in the Midwest.

Illinois had 12,710,158 residents as of July 1, 2024, the Census estimated, ranking 6th among states nationally, still down by about 112,000 from 2020.

Nationwide, the population grew by nearly 1.0%, surpassing 340 million. This is the biggest increase since 2001, and a notable change from the record low growth rate of 0.2% in 2021. The growth was primarily driven by rising international migration, which affected every state.

—Chicago Tribune

Sheinbaum is ready to receive Mexicans if Trump deports them

MEXICO CITY — Mexico is prepared to receive its nationals living in the U.S. if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his deportation pledges, but it won’t serve as a “safe third country” for migrants of other nationalities.

President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration “is prepared to work in coordination with federal, state and local authorities in the face of possible mass deportations,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement in response to questions from Bloomberg News.

Trump’s transition team has contacted the governments of Mexico and El Salvador through back channels about taking in some of the millions of undocumented migrants set to be expelled under his deportation plan, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Trump’s team and informal advisers have had detailed conversations with representatives of the two Latin American governments, in some cases via business people, about taking back migrants, according to the people.

—Bloomberg News