By Ben Johnson

The first month of the new year is about to fade into the second, yet even the electoral earthquake and an avalanche of executive orders cannot shake the legacy media from withholding, obscuring, or burying the information you need to know the most. Here are some of the most significant stories and facts you’ve missed so far in 2025.

1. 1 in 7 Inmates in Federal Female Prisons Is a Man

President Donald Trump has to dig the United States out of an enormous pile of problems — but perhaps no statistic so embodies that as this: Fully one out of every seven inmates housed inside female federal correctional facilities is a man.

Credit where it’s due: The statistic came in a New York Times story about President Trump’s first-day executive order clearing men out of women’s prisons that ran last Friday:

“The number of people affected is relatively small. There are about 1,500 federal prisoners who are transgender women, according to the Bureau of Prisons. But they represent an outsize portion of federal inmates, especially among female prisoners: 15 percent of women in prison are transgender. There are 750 transgender men out of about 144,000 male prisoners.”

The numbers modestly understate the issue. “There are 1,529 transgender females in BOP custody,” states the federal bureau’s website, out of 10,025 prisoners who are or identify as female. Trans-identifying individuals make up just one-third of that amount in male prisons. (It is not clear from BOP data if those inmates are all women who identify as men, or if some men who identify as women prefer to remain in a male penitentiary, like late mass murderer Richard Speck.)

This massive total does not include the number of trans-identifying males doing time in women’s prisons run by (typically Democat) state or local governments, such as Gavin Newsom’s California, Jay Inslee’s Washington, or Tim Walz’s Minnesota.

President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris supported forcing taxpayers to fund “medically necessary” transgender procedures for criminals and illegal immigrants in federal custody, as well as housing them in the prison of their choice. President Trump signed an executive order reversing those actions on day one.

Before anyone exonerates the Times for an accidental incidence of real journalism, the Times’ entire point in including the statistics was to question whether trans-identifying people are unfairly targeted and to gin up sympathy after being transferred to a prison of their own sex. The Times immediately follows up the data by attempting to show trans-identifying people make up a disproportionate share of federal prisoners. “Transgender people make up less than 1 percent of adults in the United States, according to the Williams Institute, a research center at the University of California, Los Angeles, law school that studies the L.G.B.T.Q. population. It is unclear why the number is higher in federal prison,” claims the NYT.

The rest of the story plays out as one might predict: It even places the term “biological sex” in scare quotes, as though the very existence of reality proved controversial. The newspaper then devotes multiple paragraphs to concerns about potential sexual abuse — of trans-identifying men. It says nothing about the women they have beaten, abused, raped, or impregnated — crimes that are anything but hypothetical.

Speaking of Tim Walz’s home state …

2. Minnesota’s Oldest Abortion Facility Closes

The oldest abortion facility in the state of Minnesota, The Robbinsdale Clinic, has closed its doors for good. The office, located in a suburb of Minneapolis, reportedly started out as a family medical facility in the 1960s but began carrying out abortions after the Supreme Court issued its since-overturned Roe v. Wade opinion.

It committed an estimated 60,000 abortions during its years of operation.

“We are very grateful to God that this blight in the city of Robbinsdale and, indeed, the whole of Minnesota is now closed,” said Brian Gibson of Pro-Life Action Ministries. At one point, the pro-life sidewalk counselors purchased the property next door to create a Chapel of the Innocents.

The abortion facility will now become a data center.

The property’s moral upgrade came not a moment too soon. The Minnesota Department of Health reported 14,124 abortions took place statewide in 2023, a 16% increase. One in five impacted mothers who traveled to the abortion “sanctuary” came from other states.

The good news on abortion is not confined to the United States …

3. The British Government’s Health Care System Cannot Find Enough Abortionists

Great Britain’s socialized medicine system has so few doctors who wish to carry out abortions that officials are sounding an “urgent need for training, workforce rejuvenation & stigma-free” abortion.

“The UK is sometimes portrayed as the abortion capital of Europe,” which “should be celebrated as a mark of the excellent care provided to people in the UK,” wrote Dr. Edgar Kennedy Dorman in the journal BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health late last year and posted on social media in January.

Over the years, the National Health Service (NHS) has largely shifted abortions away from NHS hospitals to independent abortion businesses, but the shift “has left us with too few skilled surgeons, many of whom are nearing retirement,” wrote Dorman. At the moment, the NHS is in “a ‘Catch 22’ situation, whereby” bona fide doctors he says are “enthusiastic” about wanting to learn how to kill their patient’s babies “are unable to do so because there is no NHS abortion provision within their region, and yet there is no immediate prospect of any services being established in most regions because of the lack of trained surgeons.”

As a result, an entire surgical method of abortion — dilation and extraction (D&E), commonly known as “dismemberment abortion” — “has been almost completely lost from the NHS.”

“What good news for a change,” said Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the pro-life advocate who made international headlines after British police arrested her for praying silently in her head near an abortion facility. “Let’s hope things stay that way. Perhaps some of our doctors remember their first duty to do no harm?”

May the inability of the NHS to carry out abortions presage the day spoken of in the Bible, when all the nations of the earth “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).

4. Nearly 2 out of 3 Americans Support Cutting the Size of Government

Nearly two out of three Americans (61%) approve of reducing the size and scope of government, including 37% who “strongly approve,” according to a recent poll. Only 29% disapprove in any way,“ found the Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,277 likely voters conducted between January 5 and 7. Another 10% are unsure.

Even 28% of self-described liberals believed it is time for the federal bureaucracy to tighten its belt.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) promised after being elected to a second term as speaker, "We’re going to drastically cut back the size and scope of government.” In fact, voters do not object to Speaker Johnson’s limited government policies; they question whether he will deliver. Rasmussen found 49% of respondents do not believe Congress will actually cut government, while 44% believe Republicans (who now control all three major branches of government) will follow through. Significantly, a majority (56%) of conservatives say they do have faith the second Trump administration will deliver a more fiscally responsible budget.

Thus far, the Trump administration has ordered a comprehensive review of wasteful foreign aid, fired all DEI employees, and established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose leadership has previewed up to $2 trillion in spending cuts. DOGE has already promised to defund Planned Parenthood, which received $699.3 million and committed 392,712 abortions in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Strong, bipartisan support for budget-cutting should embolden Republican leaders, inside and outside the administration, to end all direct or indirect taxpayer funding of the abortion industry.

5. Taxpayer-Funded Study Claims Conservative Christians Are Too Dumb to Trust the Experts

The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government tried its best to chronicle all the ways the Biden-Harris administration used its power to persecute the American people. It stopped at 17,019 pages. Technically, it came out late in 2024, but it contained such a plethora of information that you could be forgiven if you missed some of its details, such as the write-up of a grant in part three of the four-part report, on page 1,934.

The National Science Foundation paid MIT researchers to study how to influence military families. The committee’s report explained:

“[T]he MIT-led researchers cited a study ‘of two conservative groups’ performed by a Search Lit team member, Francesca Tripodi, examining the ‘online search practices’ of Americans who hold ‘the Bible or the Constitution’ as ‘sacred’ and ‘distrust[] journalists and academics.’ The summary also derisively noted that the approach that ‘everyday people’ typically use to get their news and information allows them ‘to act as subject matter experts,’ rather than ‘truth [being] only curated at the top.’ … To summarize, the researchers’ concern is that there are Americans who deem the Constitution and the Bible ‘sacred,’ and therefore dare to conduct their own research of ‘primary sources’ rather than trust the ‘professional consensus.’”

Why would the federal government look down on giving people the tools to evaluate the facts for themselves?

For some, it is enough to claim their political opponents are mentally defective. Others must resort to accusing their ideological foes of engaging in genocide …

6. Democrat Accuses DEI Opponents of Wanting to ‘Eradicate Black and Brown People’

Left-wing ideologues often say the U.S. government is “systemically racist.” They’re right: DEI programs are the discrimination. President Donald Trump campaigned on eradicating government-sponsored bigotry and bias in all employment, education, contracts, and all other public matters. In his first days, he signed an executive order closing all DEI offices and preparing to fire all DEI employees in the federal bureaucracy.

The Left has predictably accused the president of racism (yawn!). But some Democrats, noting the diminishing returns, had to up the ante.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), who served as the first Muslim member of the U.S. House of Representatives, thundered that anyone saying he is “going to eradicate DEI is saying, ‘We’re going to eradicate black and brown people and women and gay people and people with disabilities.’” Those are harsher words than the AG had to say when his state became the epicenter of the BLM riots.

Some will stop at nothing to besmirch the other side. Sometimes the attacks come from inside the party, at least temporarily …

7. Former Lieutenant Governor of Georgia Expelled from Republican Party

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan was a Republican in the same sense Liz Cheney was. For both, it became a credential to engage in the far more lucrative business of attacking the GOP’s conservative base. Like the Cheney clan, Duncan endorsed Joe Biden, and then Kamala Harris, in the 2024 presidential election and spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

Throwing his weight behind the most pro-abortion, pro-transgender, anti-religious liberty candidate in U.S. history came at a price. On January 6, Duncan was expelled from the Republican Party.

Duncan made campaign speeches and appearances for Kamala Harris and the Democratic National Committee under the guise of being a ‘Republican for Harris,’“ says the Georgia Republican Party’s resolution. "Duncan comically sought the presidential nomination of the ‘No Labels’ Political Party in opposition to the Republican Party” and “undermined and sabotaged the candidacy of Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee for United States Senate, discouraging Republicans from voting for him and, in doing so, gave aid to Democrat Raphael Warnock,” a Democratic socialist who regularly cites his faith as justification for abortion.

Duncan will speak at the “Principles First” summit next month alongside Never Trump (mostly former) Republicans Adam Kinzinger, Asa Hutchinson, David French, Bill Kristol, George Conway, and Barbara Comstock. This time, he will not be able to do so as a member of the Grand Old Party.

The “Principles First” summit may seem like a RINO family reunion. But the man they supported in the 2024 presidential race undermined family …

8. Joe Biden Snubbed RFK Jr. at Event Honoring RFK Sr.

Although it may be the least of the many outrages of Joe Biden’s Presidential Medal of Freedom award ceremony, the then-president managed to get in a petty shot at his former 2024 Democratic primary opponent. Biden posthumously bestowed the highest civilian honor to the late Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. (One might consider it a form of reparations for plagiarizing Kennedy during the 1988 presidential election.) He also feted the man who wanted to be RFK’s 1968 presidential rival: former Michigan governor George Romney.

Biden had Romney’s award received by the former governor’s son, one-term Senator Mitt Romney. Biden had RFK’s award accepted by … anyone except the late attorney general’s son, who has achieved the greatest political success and who bears his father’s name. (Biden selected Kerry Kennedy, one of five relatives who denounced her brother when he endorsed Donald Trump for president.)

So much for Biden family values. Speaking of common decency …

9. The Republican Who ‘Refused to Shake Hands’ with Kamala Harris Had a Cane and a Bible in His Hands

Just one month into the year, and we have already found a leading candidate to become one of the top non-stories of 2025: The husband of a Republican senator allegedly refused to shake hands with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The non-event took place on January 6, after the then-vice president swore in Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.). “The husband of a Republican senator just refused to shake hands or make eye contact with Vice President Harris,”
claimed MSNBC contributor Brian Tyler Cohen. He shared a cropped video showing Harris reaching out to shake hands, then mugging with visible umbrage at the presumed snub.

The clip went viral, and the abuse began pouring in. “The correct term for this is ‘trash,’” said Stuart Stevens, a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project. (Another founder, John Weaver, had no trouble touching others.) “That is the essence of MAGA. Anger, resentment, bitterness. Graciousness and civility is a foreign land never visited.” 

Yet a fuller photograph of the incident showed that Senator Fischer’s husband, Bruce, was holding a cane in one hand and a Bible in the other. Mr. Fischer refused to let go of the Bible to join hands with the 2024 Democratic Party leader. But an informed leader, or even an observant one, would have known not to try to shake the right hand; one might offer to shake his left hand, instead, as political leaders of both parties conscientiously did for the late Senator Bob Dole.

As of this writing, Stevens has yet to correct the record or apologize.

Mr. Fischer had his hands filled with a cane and a Bible — and all Americans would do well to lean on both.

10. ICYMI: Your Tax Dollars Funded a Podcast Promoting Satanism and a ‘Bearded Ladies’ Ice Skating Show on Climate Change

In case you failed to appreciate the depths of the federal bureaucracy’s hatred for Christianity, the U.S. government literally funded a three-season-long podcast promoting Satanism and the occult. You may have heard about this one, if you regularly read my work. As I discovered in my original reporting for The Washington Stand:

“The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded a $388,863 grant to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to produce the ‘Magic in the United States’ podcast. The series would produce six episodes per season for three seasons between October 17, 2023, and last December 17, each highlighting different occult practices (often pointing out the LGBTQ status of its practitioners).”

The podcast equates demonic possession with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, likens partaking of a pagan demonic sacrifice to Holy Communion, and insists it is possible to practice occultism while remaining a faithful Christian.

The show dedicates the final episode of season 2 to the Church of Satan. Taxpayer-funded hostess Heather Freeman praises LGBT-identifying rapper Lil Nas X for producing a music video where he “slides down a stripper pole into Hell, gives Satan a lap dance, and then kills the Prince of Hell to become its new reigning sovereign.” Freeman uses your tax dollars to conclude the video “brought light to the darkness.”

Lest anyone think I am exaggerating, I link every episode.

If that were not enough, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded a $10,000 grant to the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, “a queer experimental cabaret company,” to put on an ice-skating show promoting the theory of man-made global warming.

Both grants received mentions in the annual report on wasteful government spending produced by the office of Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), “The 2024 Festivus Report.” Yet the report provided few details of the Satanic podcast, grouping it together with promotion of stage magic, such as Harry Houdini. The reality, unfortunately, is much darker.

In an era of DOGE, it’s time for Congress to make this funding disappear.

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.