‘Protecting women': Education Department, DOJ partnering in Title IX Special Investigations Team
Amid a 'staggering volume' of Title IX complaints, the federal Education and Justice departments have launched a new team to address and resolve the complaints to 'protect students, and especially female athletes from the pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities,' officials said Friday.
The Title IX Special Investigations Team aims to streamline Title IX investigations by creating a specialized team of investigators from across the Education Department and Department of Justice offices, federal officials said.
'Protecting women and women's sports is a key priority for this Department of Justice,' Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. 'This collaborative effort with the Department of Education will enable our attorneys to take comprehensive action when women's sports or spaces are threatened and use the full power of the law to remedy any violation of women's civil rights.'
The Special Investigations unit 'will allow personnel to apply a rapid resolution investigation process to the increasing volume of Title IX cases' and also enable both the Education and Justice departments 'to work together to conduct investigations that are fully prepared for ultimate Justice Department enforcement,' officials said.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the new investigations unit 'will benefit women and girls across this nation who have been subjected to discrimination and indignity in their educational activities.'
'From day one, the Trump Administration has prioritized enforcing Title IX to protect female students and athletes,' McMahon said. 'Traditionally, our Office for Civil Rights (OCR) takes months, even years, to complete Title IX investigations. OCR under this Administration has moved faster than it ever has, and the Title IX SIT will ensure even more rapid and consistent investigations.'
'To all the entities that continue to allow men to compete in women's sports and use women's intimate facilities: there's a new sheriff in town. We will not allow you to get away with denying women's civil rights any longer,' McMahon said.
The Title IX Special Investigations Team includes:
ED Office for Civil Rights investigators and attorneys
DOJ Civil Rights Division attorneys
ED Office of General Counsel attorneys
ED Student Privacy and Protection Office case workers and an FSA Enforcement investigator
The launch of the new Special Investigations team comes after President Donald Trump in February signed the executive order Keeping Men out of Women's Sports, which officials said articulates U.S. policy, consistent with Title IX, to protect female student athletes from having 'to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males.'
In January, the president signed the executive order Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism which states that 'The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.'
Meanwhile, California lawmakers won't change state policies allowing transgender kids and teens to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identities amid heated nationwide debates over the participation of trans youth in athletics, the Associated Press reported.
Several female student athletes held signs during a hearing on Tuesday in Sacramento, California to consider bills to pass rules banning transgender student-athletes.
'Save Girls' Sports' and 'Will you protect me?' the signs read.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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Black America Web
an hour ago
- Black America Web
The Disrespect: Trump Disregards Juneteenth, Says US Has ‘Too Many Non-Working Holidays'
Source: MANDEL NGAN / Getty Black MAGA, y'all alright? Donald Trump has once again shown us who he is, the most un-American, unproductive, and unapologetically divisive figure ever elected to the highest office in the land, who has the audacity to complain about 'non-working' holidays—namely, Juneteenth. On Thursday (Jun 19), as Black Americans celebrated Juneteenth, commemorating the end of chattel slavery in the United States, Trump didn't issue a statement, attend an event, or offer even a hollow gesture of recognition. Instead, he took to his communication platform, Truth Social, to complain that America has 'too many non-working holidays,' intentionally ignoring one of the most historically significant dates for our community. 'Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed,' Trump said Thursday on Truth Social without explicitly mentioning Juneteenth. 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So yes, Trump's refusal to acknowledge Juneteenth is disrespectful; it's also entirely on brand, serving as a reminder that his presidency is built on white grievance, historical revisionism, and the suppression of truth. SEE ALSO: Thanks To Donald Trump, The American Dream Is Dead Donald Trump, Executive Overreach, And Project 2025's Blueprint SEE ALSO The Disrespect: Trump Disregards Juneteenth, Says US Has 'Too Many Non-Working Holidays' was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
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Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Officials concede they don't know the fate of Iran's uranium stockpile
The Iranians have made it clear they are not interested in having conversations with the United States, accusing Washington of deceiving officials in the Iranian capital, Tehran, during the last set of negotiations while planning the air attack. Moreover, that stockpile of fuel is now one of the few nuclear bargaining chips in Iranian hands. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In a briefing for reporters Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the new chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, avoided Trump's maximalist claims of success. They said an initial battle-damage assessment of all three sites struck by Air Force B-2 bombers and Navy Tomahawk missiles showed 'severe damage and destruction.' 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If so, Isfahan would not be the only place where the custodians of the Iranian nuclear program -- a subject of nationalistic pride and the symbol of Iran's ability to defend itself -- were trying to move equipment and material out of sight, as they also tried to harden the Fordo plant to protect what had to stay in place. Advertisement Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies at the tunnels leading into the Fordo mountain, taken in the days before the American strike, show 16 cargo trucks positioned near an entrance. An analysis by the Open Source Centre in London suggested that Iran may have been preparing the site for a strike. It is unclear what, if anything, was removed from the facility. In fact, there was only so much the Iranians could save. The giant centrifuges that spin at supersonic speeds, purifying uranium, are piped together and bolted to the cement floor. 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Officials in Tehran have told the IAEA that they have not yet opened the plant, so there is nothing to see. Advertisement If Iran is truly pursuing a nuclear weapon -- which it officially denies -- it is taking more time than any nuclear-armed nation in history. The United States developed the Manhattan Project in four years or so, developing the bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war in the Pacific. The Soviet Union conducted its first test in 1949, only four years later. India, Pakistan and Israel all sped the process. The Iranians have been at it for more than 20 years, and an archive of data stolen from a Tehran warehouse by Israel a number of years ago showed that Iranian engineers were exploring nuclear triggers and other equipment that would only be used to detonate a weapon. That was around 2003, when, according to American intelligence, the engineers received instructions to halt work on weaponization. Comments by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days suggest they believe that work has resumed, though no evidence to support the contention has been made public. If so, the strikes on Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan may only reinforce the view among Iranian leaders that they need a weapon for survival of the government. History also suggests that diplomacy has usually been more effective than sabotage or military attacks in providing assurances that a country does not pursue atomic weapons. More than 15 years ago, the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Natanz, using a sophisticated cyber weapon, caused about one-fifth of the country's 5,000 or so centrifuges to blow up. Advertisement But the Iranians not only rebuilt, they installed more sophisticated equipment. Before Israel's attack this month, they had roughly 19,000 centrifuges in operation. It was only when the Obama administration struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that the United States got a fuller picture of its capabilities, thanks to the work of inspectors. And those inspections were choked off -- and many security cameras disabled -- after Trump declared the nuclear accord a 'disaster' and withdrew from it. Tehran's reaction was to scale up centrifuge production, enrich uranium at levels only weapons states need, and stonewall the IAEA. Now, it is unclear whether the team of IAEA inspectors who were in the country when the conflict with Israel broke out will be permitted by the Iranian government to resume their inspections, which would include verifying the whereabouts and the safety of that near-bomb-grade uranium. All international inspections have been suspended during wartime, Iranian officials have said. And even if they were to resume, it was unclear if the inspectors could physically gain access to the bombed Fordo underground plant, or the wreckage of the larger enrichment facility at Natanz. Mick Mulroy, a former Pentagon official in the first Trump administration and a former CIA officer, said of the strike: 'With the type and amount of munitions used, it will likely set back the Iranian nuclear weapon program two to five years.' This article originally appeared in
