US submarine sinks Iranian warship; Rep. Gonzales admits to staffer affair

A U.S. submarine sinks an Iranian warship

Now the war with Tehran is suddenly in much deeper waters. Plus, a Texas congressman admits an affair with a former staffer

as health ethics investigators open a probe. And the Justice Department drops its investigation into Joe Biden's use of an auto pen

after prosecutors say they couldn't find a criminal case. The stories that matter, clear and credible

From across the country to around the world, these are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News

Hi everyone, I'm Simone del Rosario, filling in for Craig Negrelli this morning

And we begin this morning with the war in Iran, where Israel and Iran continue trading strikes as the conflict widens across the Middle East

Iran is also vowing retaliation after the U.S. sank one of its warships, warning America will bitterly regret the attack

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. is accelerating its campaign against Iran

highlighted by a U.S. submarine torpedoing that warship in international waters in the Indian Ocean

Iran's foreign minister responded on X, writing, Mark my words, the U.S. will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set

And the U.S. has now identified the final two service members killed in Kuwait

during the initial strikes that triggered the war. They are 45-year-old Major Jeffrey O'Brien of Iowa and 54-year-old Chief Foreign Officer 3 Robert Marzahn of California

Meanwhile, Congress is trying to rein in President Donald Trump's authority to order military strikes without approval

The Senate failed Wednesday to pass a War Powers resolution aimed at limiting his options

The House is expected to vote on its own measure later today. Even if it passes, it would still require Senate approval

and Trump has already said he wouldn't sign any measure restricting his authority

Overnight, Israel's military says it carried out a new wave of strikes inside Iran

targeting ballistic missile storage and launch sites. Israel says one strike prevented Iranian operatives from firing a missile at Israeli aircraft

Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it attacked an American oil tanker in the northern Persian Gulf

And Azerbaijan's foreign ministry accuses Iran of launching a drone attack that injured two civilians

saying one drone crashed near an airport and another near a school

Qatar's defense ministry also reports an Iranian missile strike in the capital of Doha this morning

Anthropic, which makes the AI system clod. It wants to repair its relationship with the Pentagon after a clash over how the U.S. military can use artificial intelligence in war

CBS News reports the company CEO Dario Amadei says Anthropic is still in talks with the Defense Department telling investors the goal is quote to try to deescalate the situation and come to some agreement that works for us and works for them Now this all started when Anthropic tried to

draw red lines around how its technology could be used, including preventing the military from

deploying it for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons. President Trump

responded by ordering federal agencies to stop using the company's technology, giving them six

months to phase it out, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk

Okay, but here's where things get a little complicated. Both CBS and The Washington Post

report the U.S. military is still using Claude right now in its operations in Iran. The AI is

embedded inside the Pentagon's Maven smart system, which yzes massive streams of intelligence

from satellites, surveillance, and other classified data to help identify and prioritize strike targets

Officials say the system helped generate hundreds of potential targets during the opening phase of the Iran campaign

turning what once took weeks of planning into real-time battlefield decisions. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is pushing back against Republican accusations

that his administration failed to stop a massive welfare fraud scheme in the state

Waltz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday

Federal prosecutors say more than $9 billion taxpayer dollars were ripped off through the state-run programs in Minnesota

More than 90 people have been charged in the case, most of them of Somali descent

On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Republican lawmakers accused Waltz of failing to do enough to stop the fraud from happening

Waltz rejected that claim, telling lawmakers Minnesota isn't alone in dealing with fraud

and accusing the Trump administration of unfairly targeting his state. Across the country, our nation's governors work hard every single day to combat fraud in their programs

But even as we confront issues similar to our sister states, the people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale

including blocking Medicaid reimbursements to our state just last week. Under the guise of combating fraud, the federal government has flooded Minnesota with masked, untrained and unaccountable agents who are wreaking havoc in our communities

Democratic committee member Robert Garcia echoed that argument, accusing the Trump administration of using the investigation for political purposes

The Trump administration was never serious about addressing fraud in Minnesota. Instead, they've been interested in election conspiracy theories

In terrorizing kids. and they've accused the governor and attorney general of covering up fraud only to investigate

them and turn up actually no evidence. What they're trying to do is convince Americans

that there's a good reason for violence, for killings and for violations of the law

But Republican committee chair James Comer said investigators uncovered repeated warnings that state officials failed to act on What we uncovered in Minnesota is not a paperwork error or a few bad actors slipping through the cracks

It is sustained failure of leadership. Governor Walton, Attorney General Ellison were warned repeatedly

Auditors raised red flags. Employees sounded alarms. Invoices didn't make sense. And still the money kept flowing

This fight now extends beyond the hearing room. Federal officials have frozen some child care funding for Minnesota and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in payments tied to the state

Minnesota is now suing the Trump administration after federal officials moved to withhold 243 million in Medicaid funding

A Texas congressman is acknowledging a sexual relationship with a former staff member who later died by suicide

His admission comes as he heads into a Republican runoff while facing a new House Ethics Committee investigation

In a radio interview Wednesday, Representative Tony Gonzalez called the relationship a lapse in judgment

He insisted he had nothing to do with the former aide's death and that it came as a shock

Was there a relationship with this young lady who was working in your office

You know, very, very direct, Pags. I made a mistake and I had a lapse in judgment and there was a lack of faith

And I take full responsibility for those actions. The former aide Regina Santos Aviles died in September 2025 after setting herself on fire

Her death was ruled a suicide. The House Ethics Committee has now opened an investigation into whether Gonzalez engaged in sexual misconduct with an employee or gave a staff member special treatment

House rules prohibit lawmakers from having sexual relationships with staff under their supervision

The controversy comes as Gonzalez prepares for a runoff against hard-right challenger Brandon Herrera after neither candidate cleared 50 percent in the primary for Texas' 23rd District

Some Republicans have called on Gonzalez to resign. He says the situation has been politicized and that he plans to cooperate with investigators

I look forward to the ethics committee starting an investigation. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to provide all the facts and all the details that lead to exactly what occurred in the entire situation

The ethics committee has not said how long the investigation will take

A Justice Department probe into former President Joe Biden's use of an auto pen to sign presidential documents has been quietly dropped

The New York Times was first to report that prosecutors ultimately couldn't build a criminal case after months spent examining whether Biden or his aides broke the law by using the mechanical signature device

The investigation was pushed by President Trump and his allies in Congress who claimed Biden pardons and other actions might be invalid if they were signed with an auto pen rather than by hand But according to the Times investigators never identified a crime and prosecutors eventually

shut the inquiry. The review was handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington

now led by longtime Trump ally Janine Pirro. The probe began after Trump ordered Attorney

General Pam Bondi last year to examine whether Biden's aides had used the device improperly

or without his knowledge. Trump had argued the auto pen raised serious doubts about Biden's

decision-making and the legitimacy of some of his presidential actions. Though Biden has repeatedly

rejected those claims, saying it was used only to replicate his signatures on large batches of

documents, something Trump himself has admitted to doing. The dispute even made its way into the

decor at the White House, where a framed photo of an auto pen now hangs in the spot where Biden's

portrait would normally go. We've reached out to the Justice Department for comment

Finally this morning, here's the story of a house that just became an official piece of history

The Los Angeles City Council voted to declare the famous Brady Bunch house a historic landmark

The modest mid-century home in the San Fernando Valley was used for exterior shots of the sitcom

that ran from 1969 to 1974, even though the inside of the Brady home we all remember was

actually filmed on a Hollywood soundstage. Still, the house became a pop culture pilgrimage site for

fans of the show, which lived on for decades in reruns. HGTV even bought it back in 2018 for

three and a half million dollars, spending nearly two million more to recreate the groovy interior

complete with a floating staircase and that iconic orange and green kitchen

The landmark designation now protects the house from demolition, so generations of fans can keep

stopping by for photos for years to come. Just remember, don't play ball in the house

That's a good one. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha. That's the one that always sticks out to me

All right, before we head out, here's what we're tracking today. At 8.30, the Labor Department

releases its latest weekly jobless claims. It's a fresh snapshot of layoffs in the health of the

labor market. At 10, the National Capital Planning Commission meets to review feedback on federal

construction projects, including President Trump's proposal to add a ballroom to the White House

At noon, Freddie Mac publishes its weekly national average mortgage rate, showing where borrowing costs stand right now. Remember last week, it fell below 6

for the first time in years. And this afternoon, President Trump hosts the 2025 Major League

Soccer Champions Inter-Miami at the White House. No noise, no sides, just the story

NewsGuard gives us a perfect score for reliability. All Sides gives us a center rating with balance certification

We give you the facts first without the spin. Those are your unbiased updates for this Thursday

We'll see you back here tomorrow. For all of us here at Straight Hour News, I'm Simone Del Rosario

Have a great day