The House shut down Democrats' efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty. Related video above: Matt Gaetz withdraws attorney general nomination The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims. Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It's unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers only have a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins. It's the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee's five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump's announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump's choice to head the Justice Department. “I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges. His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.Lument Finance Trust, Inc. (LFT) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.09 on January 15thFox News' Claudia Cowan joins 'America's Newsroom' to discuss the ongoing legal battle over a San Jose State transgender volleyball player. San Jose State's women's volleyball team had two players listed on the Mountain West's all-conference honorable mention list this year who are also on opposing sides of explosive lawsuits. Senior Blaire Fleming and Brooke Slusser were both on the list as well as Annie Kaminski and Kiki Remensperger from Boise State, San Diego State's Jasmine Davis, Basia Latos and Chloe Thomas from UNLV, Utah State's Kaylie Kofe and Wyoming's Sarah Holcomb. Slusser is part of two lawsuits alleging the university and Fleming actively sought to prevent Slusser and other players on the team from knowing Fleming is a biological male. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM The 2024 Mountain West volleyball season all-conference honorable mentions include San Jose State players Blaire Fleming and Brooke Slusser. (Courtesy of the Mountain West) On the court, Fleming and Slusser anchored one of the best offenses in the Mountain West. The Spartans finished the regular season with the third-best hitting percentage in the conference. Slusser finished with a top 10 individual hitting percentage in the conference. Fleming was second in the conference in kills per set with a .386, still well behind Colorado State's Malaya Jones, who led the way at .457. Fleming had a signature moment in the second-to-last game of the season against first-place Colorado State at home on Senior Day. Fleming led the game in kills with 24 and total attacks and clinched victory in the fifth set with a match-point service ace. Right after the play, Fleming was swarmed by teammates in celebration. Even Slusser got involved. This group celebration took place just days after Slusser and other Mountain West players filed a second lawsuit over Fleming's presence on the team against San Jose State and the conference. SJSU WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL'S 1ST OPPONENT DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT TRANS PLAYER, SUGGESTS MATCH WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED Slusser previously joined a lawsuit against the NCAA headed by former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines over the governing body's policies on gender ideology that have allowed transgender athletes to compete as women. In both lawsuits, Slusser has alleged Fleming's spikes travel at 80 mph. "Brooke estimates that Fleming’s spikes were traveling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball," Slusser’s complaint states. "The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves." Fleming previously set a single-game record at John Champe High School with 30 kills in a match and a single-season record of 266 kills for the school's girls' volleyball team. Footage from the athlete's Hudl page of the school-record 30-kill match in September 2019 shows how hard and fast Fleming's spikes came down at the high school level against girl opponents. Brooke Slusser, left, and Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans call a play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images) President-elect Trump even commented about footage of one of Fleming's plays in which the player spiked a ball at San Diego State player Keira Herron in a match earlier this season. "I saw the slam. It was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard," Trump said during a Fox News town hall before he was elected to a second term. "But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently — I mean, they've been hurt really badly. Women playing men." In another match against New Mexico Oct. 18, one of Fleming's spikes knocked an opposing player to the court. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Despite the lawsuits and the controversy, Slusser and the rest of her teammates have taken the court with Fleming during a season that has included several forfeits. San Jose State finished with a 12-6 conference record, earning a No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Tournament. The team achieved this with six of those 12 wins coming via forfeit after Utah State, Boise State, Nevada and Wyoming all refused to face the program amid the ongoing controversy involving Fleming. Boise State and Wyoming each forfeited two matches against San Jose State. In matches they've played, Fleming's spiking ability is the centerpiece of the team's strategy. Even Slusser has set up Fleming for one of the athlete's feared spikes throughout the season while being part of the lawsuit that has alleged safety concerns with those spikes. As the team gears up to play in the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas this week, it is bound to face a team that has already forfeited a match against San Jose State. Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans attacks the net during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images) Utah State and Boise State will meet in the quarterfinals for the right to advance and face San Jose State in the semifinal after the Spartans got a first-round bye. Slusser previously told Fox News Digital her team doesn't know if the Spartans' upcoming tournament opponents will face them. "We're just mostly wondering, are teams even gonna play us, period, if we go there? Because of just everything that's happened this season," Slusser said. "It seems like every few days it looks like it'll be a fine day and everything's normal, and then something else happens. So, I truly do think everyone's just kind of taking things day by day and taking the punches as they come." Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X , and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter . Jackson Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. He previously worked for ESPN and Business Insider. Jackson has covered the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.
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NYC's mayor warms to Trump and doesn't rule out becoming a RepublicanProtesters occupy a bathroom near House Speaker Mike Johnson's office. Courtesy Alexa B. Wilkinson Protesters took to the US Capitol bathrooms across from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office on Thursday to protest the recently enacted policy banning trans people from accessing bathrooms that align with their gender identity. Just a day after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that may upend gender-affirming care for children and adults across the United States, dozens of trans people and their allies raised banners demanding Congress “stop pissing on our rights” and urging supporters to “flush bathroom bigotry.” “It was important to show up in a radically defiant way and let the world know, and let our electeds know, that we are not going to allow this disrespect and this disregard for our lives,” Raquel Willis, co-founder of Gender Liberation Movement and one of the organizers of the demonstration, told Mother Jones . “Trans folks deserve access to the restroom like anyone else.” Organizers said about 15 people were arrested for crowding and obstructing, including Willis and Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower who leaked troves of classified government records about Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks. According to The 19th , Capitol police threatened protesters with sexual misconduct charges, although a Gender Liberation Movement spokesperson said no such charges were filed. The demonstration, which Willis said was inspired by civil rights sit-ins of the past , was in response to the efforts spearheaded by Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican who, weeks after the election, vowed to propose a trans bathroom ban to target the first openly trans person elected to Congress, Democrat Sarah McBride from Delaware. After Speaker Johnson announced that bathroom access would be restricted—which he did on the Trans Day of Remembrance —Mace went still further, announcing that the ban she proposed would be extended to include all federal property, including museums and national parks. “Oh you thought threatening me would silence me?” Mace wrote in a post on X . “No. I just doubled down and filed a new bill to protect women and girls across the entire country on all federal property everywhere.” After the protest, Mace called protesters an anti-trans slur in an X post . “These attacks aren’t just about trans people. These are attacks that will be continued, that will be utilized against other communities on the margins.” “Every person deserves dignity and respect, both in daily life and in more symbolic places like the US Capitol,” Manning, whose sentencing for leaking classified information was commuted by then-President Barack Obama after a seven-year imprisonment, said in a statement. “As someone who has fought against similar rules, I know what it’s like to feel pushed aside and erased. But I also know the incredible power and resilience our community has.” Trans bathroom ban proposals have proliferated across the United States, with 14 states enacting restrictions since 2021, according to the Movement Advancement Project . Most recently, Ohio enacted a bathroom ban encompassing all K–12 schools and colleges, affecting trans students’ access not only to school restrooms but also to university dormitories. Proponents of the bans, including Mace, argue that they’re necessary to protect the safety of women and girls from would-be assaulters. Researchers, however, have found no link between trans-inclusive bathroom policies and safety risks. In fact, research shows that trans people face greater risk of sexual harassment and assault when restrictive bathroom policies are in place. Even without such bans, trans people already face a disproportionate risk of violence , particularly sexual violence. Willis said that as attacks on trans rights escalate, it is critical that allies—including Democratic elected officials—push against anti-trans policies and rhetoric. She described Democrats as “missing in action” while a coordinated wave of anti-trans legislation has spread across states since 2021. “These attacks aren’t just about trans people,” she said. “These are attacks that will be continued, that will be utilized against other communities on the margins.”
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It seemed like companies couldn’t hire information technology analysts fast enough in 2014 when Michael Deneen began his IT career. Job counts nationally soared in the 2010s and early 2020s, but then the market flattened and a profession that looked like it might grow uninterrupted started shedding jobs. Laid off twice this year from Minnesota IT jobs, Deneen said he’s found it hard to snag the next gig. “Before I could have three, four offers lined up and would have to choose between them,” the Columbia Heights man said. “It’s like I’m struggling to even get a foot in the door in places that I’m more than qualified for.” ADVERTISEMENT Even with the state’s relatively low 3.5 percen t unemployment rate, some mid-career Minnesotans and those just coming out of college are seeing a job market now that worries them. Recent layoffs at Cargill in the Twin Cities and last week’s announcement that Arctic Cat, the Minnesota snowmobile maker, will shutter its manufacturing operations next year in Thief River Falls and St. Cloud, have added to the anxiety. Analysts say Minnesota’s job market remains robust, but for some there’s a skills matchup problem as some sectors grow while others flatten or decline. “I’m not gonna lie, it’s been hard,” Deneen said of finding the next IT job. “I’ve had a lot of self-doubt now, like questioning is this really an industry I am good at? Is this something I should even be in anymore? I’m also 40. It’s like, I can’t really switch careers at this point.” Health care, government, leisure and hospitality and transportation are among the Minnesota sectors that continue to show strong job growth, according to state data. Other industries are growing slower, including construction and manufacturing. “We’ve heard from some folks that maybe it has taken a little longer than what they remember in the past if they were previously unemployed. Some individuals don’t say that at all,” said Sara Garbe, workforce development supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. “November and reaching December, we certainly see a slowdown of hiring and folks may mention things like that they’ve heard from recruiters that maybe a decision won’t be made until after the holidays or after the first or the last quarter of the year,” added Garbe, whose staff works with new job seekers and those in mid-career. For recent college grads who haven’t landed work, the holiday season can bring its own pressures. ADVERTISEMENT Raina Hofstede, 22, studied English at Harvard University. Since graduating in May and coming back to Minnesota, she said job prospects have been nearly nonexistent. “I feel kind of directionless in the time period that I’m waiting,” said Hofstede, who grew up in Coon Rapids. “I feel like I really want to plan. I’m at a point where, like, I’d love to get things moving.” She’s applied to post-undergrad internships and career-advancing work. She’s looking into publishing, creative writing spaces and museums and hopes a stint working in comedy clubs while at Harvard might intrigue an employer. The search and the uncertainty around it is a grind, she acknowledged. “I think, as time goes on, and this feels sad, but I think as time goes on, my belief in myself slowly drops a little bit more with more rejections, and so I feel like I’ll be applying to less and less competitive things as I move forward,” Hofstede said. ' Minnesota showed strong steady job growth coming out of the Great Recession in 2009, reaching nearly 3 million jobs by February 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic torpedoed that growth — the state lost more than 400,000 jobs, nearly 14 percent of its employment, in the span of a few months. Job counts didn’t return permanently to pre-pandemic levels until September last year. The current state and national unemployment rates are relatively low, although they have ticked up over the past year. Minnesota’s unemployment rate is lower than the U.S. unemployment rate at 4.2 percent. Based on the most recent data, Minnesota has six unemployed people for every 10 job openings where nationally there are nine unemployed people for every 10 openings. ADVERTISEMENT Knowing that doesn’t make it easier for those looking for work, waiting for answers from prospective employers. “It just kind of feels like they have no respect for a candidate or their time, or them as a person,” Deneen said of the current market. “It’s an entire game, and it shouldn’t be this way.” Garbe said technology is transforming job searches in ways that may make landing work more challenging for some in mid-career or just starting out. Companies are using automated systems or in some cases artificial intelligence systems to screen applicants before a human gets to them. She encourages job seekers to reach out to one of DEED’s more than 50 CareerForce offices across the state where analysts can review resumes or cover letters with job seekers and offer help with writing and strategy. They can also connect people to needed training or certifications. Garbe also suggests reflecting on what you’ve accomplished to boost your self-confidence if you get overwhelmed. Social media has become a resource for job seekers as they look. Groups on Reddit like r/StudentJobSearch have become a space for venting and advice with conversations about job searching and applications. LinkedIn is also seeing similar support groups, including two Deneen is in that focus on networking and project management. ADVERTISEMENT Hofstede said she’s found solace leaning on those around her who are going through these same experiences. She and a group of new graduates meet at their public library to sift through job postings and work on cover letters and resumes together. “Something of a little community of people who are unemployed and looking for jobs, and I like having the friends support,” she said. “It is harder to go through something uncertain like this alone.”Amprius technologies CTO Stefan Ionel sells $16,846 in stock