The Department of Transportation has moved to shut down another 550 commercial driver’s license schools amid a new focus on crashes involving foreign nationals with U.S. non-domiciled CDLs.

‘For too long, the trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild West, where anything goes and nobody asks any questions.’

The DOT announced on February 18 that it discovered the “sham CDL training schools” violated the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s safety standards. The agency issued notices of proposed removal from the FMCSA’s national training provider registry.

The DOT found that some noncompliant schools used fictitious addresses and employed unqualified instructors who lacked the necessary licenses and permits for the vehicles they were teaching students to drive. In other cases, these schools provided training with vehicles that were not appropriate for the instruction being offered. Some training providers even admitted to investigators that they failed to meet their state’s requirements.

FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said, “If a school isn’t using the right vehicles or if their instructors aren’t qualified, they have no business training the next generation of truckers or school bus drivers.”

One of the schools on the DOT’s proposed removal list reportedly provided training to school bus drivers.

The DOT informed Blaze News that these schools have not yet been closed, as they are still within the 30-day period to either provide evidence of compliance with federal safety standards or indicate their intention to complete the corrective actions specified by the FMCSA. However, the agency stated that it has already closed 6,500 CDL training schools.

RELATED: 18-wheeler speeding the wrong direction on highway was driven by — you guessed it

Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images

The findings resulted from the FMCSA mobilizing over 300 investigators and conducting more than 1,400 on-site sting operations over five days. While 448 schools were issued a notice of proposed removal, 109 training providers voluntarily removed themselves from the FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry.

An additional 97 training schools remain under investigation for similar alleged violations.

RELATED: ‘Couldn’t read … road signs’: Video shows trucker driving the wrong direction on highway — Sec. Duffy responds

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“For too long, the trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild West, where anything goes and nobody asks any questions,” DOT Secretary Sean Duffy stated. “The buck stops with me. Under President Trump, my team is cracking down on every link in the trucking chain that has allowed this lawlessness to impact the safety of America’s roads. American families should have confidence that our school bus and truck drivers are following every letter of the law and that starts with receiving proper training before getting behind the wheel.”

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In a video posted to X, Vinny Martorano, a multimedia journalist for the Sinclair-owned Austin CBS affiliate, was handed a phone during a livestream at the Texas Capitol and shown what appeared to be a message from station management. According to the brief exchange caught on camera, the instruction was to avoid focusing on celebrations in the street, where demonstrators were chanting and thanking former President Donald Trump following the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Martorano glanced at the message, looked back toward the crowd, and responded, “All right. Well, I am,” before continuing his report.

‘A large group of people in front of the Texas Capitol are celebrating the coordinated strike against Iran early this morning.’

The 30-second clip quickly spread across social media, racking up hundreds of thousands of views within hours. Many users framed the moment as evidence of media bias and praised Martorano for refusing to downplay a pro-Trump rally.

RELATED: UK prime minister reverses course, allows US use of British bases for strikes on Iran

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The alleged text Martorano received didn’t stop him from reporting what was happening.

When the livestream continued, Martorano opened his on-air report by noting that reactions across Austin were mixed.

“There are a lot of mixed opinions across Austin about the joint attack between the United States and Israel against Iran that happened earlier this morning,” Martorano said. “Some people, like this group behind me, are thanking Trump and the United States government for following through with this attack against Iran, while other people across the city say there needs to be more peace in the Middle East.”

Martorano made additional posts, covering the celebrations.

RELATED: Israeli officials say Khamenei is dead. Update: Trump confirms.

Photo by Natalia Campos/Getty Images

“A large group of people in front of the Texas Capitol are celebrating the coordinated strike against Iran early this morning,” one of his posts read. “Some people I spoke with moved to Austin from Iran.”

Eric Daugherty, chief content officer of Right Line News, praised Martorano for his honest reporting despite alleged pressure to do the opposite. “THAT’S how you do it!”

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As events continue to unfold in the Middle East in the aftermath of Operation Epic Fury and Operation Roaring Lion, military leaders have provided some crucial updates to the events of this weekend.

The United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran at approximately 1:15 a.m. ET on Saturday morning, according to a U.S. Central Command post summarizing the first 24 hours of the operation. Since the beginning of the operation, the attacks have continued consistently, and Iran has repeatedly retaliated.

‘May Almighty God watch over you, and may His providential arms of protection extend over you. GODSPEED WARRIORS — and keep going.’

On the first day of the attacks, President Donald Trump confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a series of strikes on Saturday.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS. He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”

RELATED: ‘Painful days’: Iran kills US troops as Trump threatens decapitated Iranian regime

US CENTCOM/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images

Trump announced on Sunday afternoon that he was informed that the U.S. had destroyed and sunk nine Iranian naval ships, “some of them relatively large and important.” He added that “we are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also! In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters.”

U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the territory in which the conflict has unfolded, released a press statement on Monday morning regarding “an apparent friendly fire incident” in Kuwait.

The brief statement reported that three United States F-15E Strike Eagles, flying in supporting of Operation Epic Fury, were “mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses” during an active combat situation involving Iranian aircraft. The press release confirmed that all six aircrew ejected, were safely recovered, and are in stable condition.

Another major event includes the bombing of a girls’ elementary school in Iran. According to the New York Times, at least 175 people, presumably mostly children, were killed in a bombing attack in southern Iran.

“The Minab school incident has no comparison with any other incident,” said Pirhossein Kolivand, the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, in a video posted on social media on Sunday. “Even in Gaza,” he added, there had not been such a high number of students killed simultaneously, and he called the attack “a unique and bitter incident,” according to the New York Times.

The attack does not appear to be intentional, however. The school, NYT reported, is adjacent to a naval base of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. Further, the school was once connected to the naval base and was only disconnected from it in 2016.

On Monday morning, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a direct message to the Joint Force. Hegseth said, in part, “We are not defenders anymore — we are warriors, trained to kill the enemy and break their will. History is watching. Be the force you swore to be: focused, disciplined, lethal, and unbreakable. We will finish this on America First conditions of President Trump’s choosing — nobody else’s. As it should be.”

“May Almighty God watch over you, and may His providential arms of protection extend over you. GODSPEED WARRIORS — and keep going,” Hegseth concluded the address.

The efficiency of the military operation has apparently even surprised the president.

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday, President Trump detailed the success of the operation in decapitating Iran’s senior leadership. He explained that dozens of senior leaders were gathered for breakfast with the ayatollah, thinking it was safe because they were gathered in broad daylight, Fox reported.

“It was 49 leaders that were taken out. That was going to take four weeks, we thought, to get rid of the Iranian leadership. And it’s always, you know, if they hide, it’s a lot longer than four weeks. And they would have been hiding,” Trump told Baier. “We were shocked when we heard what was going on. We knew exactly what was happening and where.”

The operation, despite its apparent overwhelming success, has come at a tragic cost, however. U.S. Central Command reported that as of 7:30 a.m. ET, “four U.S. service members have been killed in action.” The number of deaths was previously three. “The fourth service member, who was seriously wounded during Iran’s initial attacks, eventually succumbed to their injuries.”

The identities of the fallen are being withheld at this time.

Additionally, trade is expected to be stalled due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes. The Independent reported Sunday that Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping channel for crude oil, fuel, and liquefied natural gas.

Euronews reported that natural gas prices have already surged on Monday in response to the conflict. Further, QatarEnergy announced that it has decided to stop LNG production at one of the largest natural gas fields in the world, North Fields, citing the conflict.

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In protest of President Trump’s State of the Union address, Democrats held their own “People’s State of the Union” featuring Joy Reid — and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales was easily able to infiltrate it before getting kicked out after trolling the former MSNBC host.

“Now obviously, President Trump is the troller in chief, and I just try to learn from him like a young Padawan. And I just thought, you know what? I’m gonna do a little trolling as well,” Gonzales explains.

While there, Gonzales squeezed in some interviews with the audience — one of whom was dressed in an inflatable cat suit.

“So do cats, is their official position that they don’t like Donald Trump?” Gonzales asked the cat attendee.

“They definitely don’t like this guy,” the cat responded, holding a sign of JD Vance.

Another man was holding a sign that read, “MAGA is Putin’s tool.” When Gonzales asked how MAGA is Putin’s tool, the man responded “Figure it out. If you can’t figure it out, you’re part of the problem.”

“I mean, I feel like you would want to educate people as to exactly how that is,” Gonzales shot back, adding, “You don’t want to educate people? … How much you were paid to be here tonight?”

“Fifty bucks and a bottle of Crown Royal,” he answered.

“Really? Does George Soros pay that to you?” she pressed, before he yelled back, “Fascist maggot, get the f**k out of here.”

After briefly heckling Reid, who took the stage and immediately began celebrating Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Gonzales was kicked out of the event — missing a performance by Reid and another woman singing.

“You guys can hear the claps,” Gonzales comments, adding, “There’s nobody there.”

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