On January 27, 2026, President Trump signed EO Addressing State and Local Failures to Rebuild Los Angeles After Wildfire Disasters. Section 1 reminds us that one year ago, the State of California and the City of Los Angeles failed to contain the wildfires that consumed nearly 40,000 acres of homes and businesses in the Pacific Palisades. Together, they failed to manage forest systems responsibly, maintain water distribution and reservoir system that would be used in emergency situations, failed to communicate evacuation warnings, and failed to act decisively or cohesively to contain the fire. This is seen as one of the greatest failures of elected political leadership and continues with the abject failure of rebuilding the damaged areas due to state and local red tape and policies. It was not until EO 14181 Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California and Improve Disaster Response in Certain Areas signed January 24, 2025 was implemented that the debris-removal happened, clearing hazardous materials from over 9,500 properties in just 6 months.
EO 14181 overrode disastrous California policies to ensure adequate water resources were available to Southern California by overriding existing activities that reduced efforts to maximize water deliveries. It also expedited any actions related to exemptions under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESEA) 16 USC 1531. This EO also ended subsidization of California's mismanagement ordering the OMB to review all Federal programs, projects, and activities for all relevant agencies impacting land management, water availability & supply, water storage & delivery, water infrastructure, and disaster preparedness and response. This EO also implemented plans to expedite housing relief to survivors displaced by the wildfires. Section 5 added additional actions to help North Carolina Families to clear roadways and house displaced families.
Section 2 states that it is a Trump Administration policy that federally funded reconstruction for homes and businesses proceed with maximum speed (noting safety concerns) and not be obstructed by unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive permitting requirements by state or local government that prevents families and businesses from rebuilding.
Section 3 specifically works to preempt state permitting obstacles so people can commence rebuilding their homes and businesses. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall continue to review all repairs and construction activities for compliance with health, safety, and other substantive standards while expediting permits necessary to rebuild.
Section 4 approves the expediting of a Federal response ordering the heads of relevant agencies to ensure permits, waivers, reviews, consultations, or approvals are done in a timely manner while continuing to ensure public health and safety.
Section 5 calls for new legislation enabling FEMA and SBA to address situations such as Los Angeles Pacific Palisades where State or local governments are not enabling timely recovery after disasters.
Section 6 charges the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine how much of the $3B in Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding granted to California was awarded arbitrarily, capriciously, or contrary to law within 30 days of the date of this EO. Once this report is completed, administrative determinations shall be made and enforced based on those findings to include imposing future grant conditions, initiating recovery of funds, deploying oversight or technical assistance to expedite use of these funds for the benefit of individuals, families, and small businesses. Then, within 60 days, to conduct a Federal audit of this funding to determine whether funded projects were completed as approved and in a timely manner.
I fully expect to hear a lot of squawking from California and Los Angeles over this EO because it basically takes over the state and local permitting process, cuts through all the red tape, and gets people what they need to rebuild by overriding state and local laws. Expect lawsuits from California and Los Angeles to prevent people the ability to rebuild their homes and businesses. This is not a good optic and will ultimately add to the mass exodus the state has been experiencing since 2020.
The accompanying Fact Sheet President Donald J. Trump Addresses State and Local Failures to Rebuild Los Angeles After Wildfire Disasters explains that this EO will accelerate rebuilding from the wildfire in Los Angeles, cutting through the red tape and speed up reconstruction. President Trump told them shortly after the fires were quenched that they needed to cut the red tape in the state and he would facilitate getting Federal permits. He did his part; but, the state did not. People are still waiting on the state to process their permits over a year later. Only 10 homes have managed to be rebuilt. President Trump told them last year that if they didn't help people rebuild, he would do it. Hopefully, this EO will force the state to expedite permits so those homeowners can get back on their property and rebuild their homes.
It's not just Iowa where costs went down. I have yet to do my taxes but I am hoping that $6,000 tax credit for seniors will be helpful to me since I don't qualify for any of the other tax rebates. But, I can say that my utilities went down drastically over the last year.
In 2024 my average utility bills (electric, gas, water, trash, sewer, & cable) was $595.56 per month. Counting just the highest bill for each service, the total was $969.51.
At the end of 2025, the monthly average was $498.60 and the total for the highest bill for each service was $676.12.
So my average monthly utility total saw a 17% reduction in 2025. And the highest bills in each category over the year reduced by 21%.
On January 27, 2026, the White House released the Presidential Message on International Holocaust Remembrance Day paying respects to the millions who were murdered by the Nazi Regime as well as those who were subject to barbaric conditions such as forced labor, starvation, disease, torture, and medical experiments. President Trump writes:
On this solemn day, we remember every man, woman, and child senselessly killed by the evil, depravity, and hate of the Nazi Regime—and we commend the survivors who dedicated their lives to sharing their stories while carrying the unimaginable burden of the seen and unseen scars. This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and every day, we honor their enduring resilience, faith, and strength—and we recommit to the sacred truth that every human being is made in the holy image of God.
On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense was published. The pamphlet was 47 pages containing the following sections: Introduction; Postscript to Preface in the 3rd Edition, Common Sense; On the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution; Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession; Thoughts on the Present state of American Affairs; Of the Present Ability of America: With Some Miscellaneous Reflections; and an appendix to Common Sense. If you are interested in reading this pamphlet, it is available for free online in its entirety at the Online Library of Liberty (OLL) website.
This manuscript explained to common people why America should break away from Britain using simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense. He advocated for elections of representatives chosen by the people instead of an hereditary monarchy. He argued that the time for peace was over based on the events of the last few years.
In the first 3 months of publication, over 120,000 copies were sold. By the end of the Revolutionary War, over 500,000 copies had been sold. Common Sense is celebrated as the most influencing factor for Americans joining the Colonial Army for the Revolutionary War.
We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months. The reflection is awful, and in this point of view, how trifling, how ridiculous, do the little paltry cavilings of a few weak or interested men appear, when weighed against the business of a world. Quote from Birthday of a New World from the Appendix to Common Sense
Thomas attended Thetford Grammar School from 1744 to 1749 even though school was not compulsory. At age 13, he apprenticed as a stay-maker for sailing ships with his father for 6 years.
In 1745, at age 19, Thomas enlisted as a privateer and served aboard the ship King of Prussia. He returned to Britain 14 years later in 1759 where he opened a shop in Sandwich, Kent, England as a staymaker.
Thomas married Mary Lambert on September 27, 1759. She went into early labor with their first child and both she and the child died. Thomas married Elizabeth Ollive on March 26, 1771. She was the daughter of his recently deceased landlord. Thomas and Elizabeth never divorced. He had no known children.
By July 1761, Thomas returned to Thetford to work as a supernumerary officer. In December 1762, he became an Excise Officer (customs) in Grantham and Lincolnshire. In August 1764, he transferred to Alford; however, by August 27, 1765, he was dismissed because it was discovered he was claiming to have inspected goods when he did not. On July 31, 1766, he petitioned the Board of Excise for reinstatement which was granted the next day. In 1767, he was appointed to Grampound, Cornwall. He requested leave to await a vacancy elsewhere accepting a teaching position until February 19, 1768 when he was appointed to Lewes, Sussex, England. It was here Thomas became interested in civic or political matters. In 1771, Thomas entered into the grocer and tobacconist business that was his wife's inheritance. By 1774, the tobacco shop failed. To avoid debtor's prison, he sold the household possessions and paid the debts. He formally separated from Elizabeth on June 4, 1774 and moved to London where he met Benjamin Franklin, publisher and editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette. Benjamin gave Thomas a letter of recommendation.
Thomas arrived in Philadelphia on November 30, 1774 having barely survived the trip. Typhoid fever killed 5 of the passengers. Thomas was too ill to disembark on his own. Luckily, Benjamin's physician was there to welcome Thomas to America and had him carried off the ship. It took him 6 weeks to recover. By March 1775, he had already become a citizen of Pennsylvania and an editor of Pennsylvania Magazine.
Thomas believed in American freedom from the monarchy. After the Battles of Lexington and Concord, he was inspired to write the pamphlet Common Sense, which was published January 10, 1776. This pamphlet crystallized American sentiment for independence (discussed above). Even though the Revolution had already started over other things (remember the Boston Tea Party and other preceding events), Common Sense rallied the average American to join the war effort.
Thomas is credited with naming the new nation "United States of America" in a June 29, 1776 letter in the Pennsylvania Evening Post where he wrote under the pseudonym Republicus. During the war, Thomas wrote many works. In 1780, Thomas was awarded an honorary master of arts from the University of Pennsylvania.
During a visit to France, French politician Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier ordered his arrest on December 28, 1793. Vadier refused to acknowledge Thomas' American citizenship. He survived being executed due to an error where the guard marked the inside of his cell door instead of the outside (the door having been left open for unknown reasons). Thomas was released November 1794 thanks to James Monroe who managed to convince the French that Thomas was an American citizen. Thomas remained in France until 1802 when President Jefferson invited him to return.
After Thomas published Age of Reason (published in 3 parts in 1794, 1795, and 1807), available free online at Sacred-Texts, he became a controversial subject, losing many friends due to the subject matter as well as criticism of the Church while pushing deism. In the introduction, Thomas lays out his personal beliefs:
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
Thomas died June 8, 1809 at age 72 in Greenwich Village, New York City, NY. There are various offerings as to a cause of death: old age, alcoholism, arteriosclerosis of the brain, wretchedness, poor health, and/or poverty. According to his will, he did not want to be buried in the Quaker graveyard, so he was buried under a walnut tree on his farm in New Rochelle, New York with only 6 people in attendance. His remains were disinterred in 1819 by William Cobbett with a goal of returning them to England to receive a heroic reburial but that never happened. When Cobbett died 15 years later, the bones were still there; however, they were later lost and never recovered.
Those are some of the exact words used by Google’s censors, aka 'Orwellian content police,' in describing many of our controversial stories. Stories later proven to be truthful and light years ahead of the mainstream media. But because we reported those 'inconvenient truths' they're trying to bankrupt ANP.
