The new Republican-controlled Congress will hear arguments on a bill that would seek to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in women's sports in its first 100 days after voting yes on a new rules package Friday. 

The 119th Congress approved the new rules package after re-electing Mike Johnson as House speaker. A bill to address the issue of gender identity in sports was listed as the top priority.

"A bill to amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth," the first point in the final section of the package states.

Democrats have previously introduced multiple bills to protect transgender inclusion in women's and girls sports on a national level, including the Equality Act and the Transgender Bill of Rights. The Biden administration took multiple steps to enable transgender inclusion via executive orders, including an order on his first day in office in 2021.

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However, those efforts have stalled over the last year, as Democrats have pulled back on their support for transgender inclusion amid immense backlash in a heated election year. Biden's Department of Education even withdrew its proposed rule that would have outlawed states from banning transgender athletes from women's and girls sports in late December after it was initially proposed in April 2023. 

Now, after President-elect Trump and other prominent Republicans vowed to take action to ban transgender athletes from women's sports prior to the election, there is a timeline for when that action may begin. 

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., celebrated Friday's vote and will be reintroducing the bill included in the rules package, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. 

"The radical left is not in step with the American people on the issue of protecting women’s sports," Steube said in a statement released Friday. 

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"Americans have loudly spoken that they do not want men stealing sports records from women, entering their daughters’ locker rooms, replacing female athletes on teams, and taking their daughters’ scholarship opportunities. 

"My legislation stands for truth, safety, and reality: men have no place in women’s sports. Republicans have promised to protect women’s sports, and under President Trump’s leadership, we will fulfill this promise."

This bill ensures that biological females compete against other biological females in women’s sports that are operated or sponsored by a recipient of federal funding.

Other women's activist groups have also celebrated the impending legislative action on the issue after a year of multiple controversies involving transgender athletes competing against and sharing locker rooms with biological women and girls across the nation. 

The Concerned Women for America (CWA) provided a statement to Fox News Digital, praising the prioritization of the bill. 

"There’s no question this ought to be a legislative priority in the 119th Congress. The Biden administration and company have launched a full-scale attack on women’s dignity. Leadership must act promptly to restore sensibility to public policy and immediately take young girls out of the disastrous fires of woke ideology," CWA Legislative Strategist Macy Petty told Fox News Digital. 

"No little girl should see the most powerful politicians in the world vote to put men in her locker room. Not in the Land of the Free. It’s cowardice and disgusting. But it’s the reality of our political landscape. Last Congress, the House passed similar legislation on strict party lines. One party voted that women deserve private spaces, one didn’t."

Conservative advocacy group Heritage Action for America released a statement Friday celebrating the vote. 

"Today, the House also considered the rules package for the 119th Congress that includes significant legislative priorities for Heritage Action, including the SAVE Act and the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act. Congress must now begin the work to enact a bold conservative agenda. We congratulate Speaker Johnson on his re-election to speaker of the House and look forward to working with all members of the 119th Congress to enact conservative policy wins," the statement said. 

A national exit poll conducted by the CWA legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of "Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls' and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls' and women’s bathrooms" as important to them.

And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was "very important."

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A selection of news photographs from around the world.

New York native Greg Van Roten is well-versed on the hard times experienced over the last decade by the Giants and Jets. 

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Even celebrity chefs like Rachael Ray can experience all-too-relatable mishaps in the kitchen.

Ray, 56, uploaded a cooking video for her TikTok followers on Thursday, January 2, in which she put a handful of ingredients in a food processor.

“Once you put the cheese into this mixture, it tends to make it white and cloudy and hard to navigate,” Ray said, fiddling with the device lid. “You know what else is hard to navigate? Turning on a new food processor.”

Ray then called for her husband, John Cusimano, to assist.

Rachael Ray, John Cusimano 'Stay in Separate Corners' When They Need 'Space'

“John flying in from the director’s chair!” she quipped. “Mic’d or not, can you just fix the food processor, please? Make it go. ‘Make it go,’ that’s my broken English way of saying, ‘Please make it work.’ Let’s see how long it takes John to figure it out.”

The video then sped up as Cusimano, 57, fiddled with the food processor and the accompanying cord. Ray tried to help, pointing out different ways to fix the situation to no avail.

@rachaelray

Rachael 00 New Food Processor 01 #DownBad #MakeItGo

♬ original sound – Rachael Ray

“This is turning into a party joke: How many people does it take to make the Cuisinart work?” she added. “Did we even check that it was plugged in?”

While Cusimano was certain that the processor was indeed plugged in, Ray continued to double-check two more times, just “to be sure.”

“No reason for that not to be working,” she said with a laugh after Cusimano plugged the processor back into an outlet. “Can you believe I have a cooking show?”

Once Cusimano finally got the processor to work, Ray corrected the buttons he pressed.

“No, pulse, pulse, pulse, pulse,” Ray said. “Now, John, take the lid off and add a cup of this.”

Cusimano, however, jokingly lamented potentially removing the lid when “it took [him] all episode” to successfully secure it on the processor.

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Ray has been married to Cusimano, who helps run her vast lifestyle empire, since 2005.

“One of the things that, I think, has been essential to my life and my success over the years has been the partner that I chose,” Ray gushed on a November 2024 episode of her “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” podcast. “I love my husband, John, and [he] works with me and has built our business and our brand together.”

She added at the time, “My husband and I didn’t get married until very late in life [at] 37 and 38 years old, but it was very important to me that I marry him because I thought this person could be a true partner in what I believe in and helping people.”

Cusimano mostly stays behind the scenes during filming, but occasionally helps Ray in the kitchen. She told Us Weekly last month how Cusimano “contributes a ton” to holiday meals.

“I always task him with making the eggnog from scratch,” Ray exclusively told Us in December 2024. “He has a killer recipe where he froths skim milk and then shakes in cardamom, cinnamon, rum and an egg. It’s lighter than a store-bought eggnog but just as delicious.”

Kelly Stafford vulnerably acknowledged the negative toll social media has recently taken on her mental health.

Stafford, 34, made the candid admission while discussing New Year’s resolutions on the Thursday, January 2 episode of her podcast “The Morning After.”

“I want to get off social media so bad. I don’t want to be on it anymore. It’s honestly giving me depressing thoughts,” Kelly said, while audibly fighting back tears. “But in the work that we are in, that’s not really an option.”

Stafford, the wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, explained being active on social media is crucial to the success of her podcast, but she said comments about her appearance have forced her to seriously weigh the pros and cons. 

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“I’m human,” Kelly noted. “I post something about a game or something and either I need to wear more makeup or now I am looking like I had plastic surgery because I actually had time to do my makeup and I did it because I felt like I needed to.”

Kelly joked, “ I’ll be the first one to tell you when I get a facelift and I’ll tell you where the doctor I go to is.”

“I’m old,” she added. “This should not be happening. It is very, very scary to raise four girls in a world where opinions of people you’ve never met matter to you.”

Kelly and Matthew, who got married in 2015, share four daughters: twins Sawyer and Chandler, 7, Hunter, 6, and Tyler, 4. 

“I’m not going to tell people that I’m going to have tougher skin, because I’m not,” Kelly said. “I’m a woman in my 30s and I have feelings. But I am going to try and do a better job of remembering that clearly people who are commenting certain things are unhappy with situations in their own life.”

Kelly admitted bluntly, “If people are setting out to hurt me with comments, congratulations. You have done it.”

Furthermore, Kelly explained how her husband has begun noticing the negative impact social media is having on her well-being.

“This has been a back-and-forth with Matthew, too, because he can see it,” she said. “I put down the phone, he knows immediately. ‘What did someone say?’ That’s a problem because I’m carrying it way past just putting my phone down. It is in my mind, it is in my heart. I am trying to do my best to fix that.”

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Kelly issued a plea to any podcast listeners who might be the ones responsible for the vitriolic attacks being spewn online. 

“I do want to make it aware that if you’re listening to this and you’re a person … God, I’m sorry,” she said as her voice began to crack. “And you’re one of those people that comments horrible things on anyone’s Instagrams, just stop. It’s hurtful. You never know what something you could say could do to someone. So just stop.”

Ultimately, Kelly said her resolution for the year is “to every day remind myself that the people who matter, those are the opinions that matter to me.”

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.

Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is the latest scripted series centered around a prolific serial killer.

According to the show’s synopsis, the limited TV series “peels back the twisted layers of John Wayne Gacy‘s life while weaving in the heartrending stories of his mostly gay victims.” Devil in Disguise is focused on “exploring the grief, guilt, and trauma of their families and friends and exposing the systemic failures, missed opportunities and societal prejudices that fueled his reign of terror.”

“From 1972 to 1978, 33 young men were kidnapped, murdered and buried in a crawl space beneath their killer’s house. And no one was the wiser,” a press release read. “Not for all those years. Why? He was charming and funny. Had a good, All-American job. Was a community leader. He even volunteered to entertain sick kids … while dressed as a clown.”

The scripted series is inspired by Peacock’s 2021 docuseries of the same name — one of several TV shows that focuses on notorious true crimes, including Ryan Murphy‘s Monsters about Erik Menéndez and Lyle Menéndez and Paramount+’s untitled series about JonBenét Ramsey.

Most Anticipated Scripted True Crime TV Shows Coming Out Soon

Keep scrolling for everything to know about Peacock’s Devil in Disguise:

Who Is John Wayne Gacy — And Is He Still Alive?

Gacy was a serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured and murdered dozens of young men and boys. After he was convicted of 32 murders, he was sentenced to death and died by lethal injection in 1994.

When Is ‘Devil in Disguise’ Coming Out?

Peacock has not released a premiere date or episode count after Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy was ordered straight to series.

Who Is Involved in ‘Devil in Disguise’?

Devil in Disguise is created by Patrick Macmanus, who is best known for his work on The Girl From Plainville and Dr. Death. The lead role of Gacy will be played by Michael Chernus, while Gabriel Luna plays Detective Rafael Tovar, James Badge Dale is Chief of Detectives Joe Kozenczak, Michael Angarano portrays Sam Amirante, Chris Sullivan is Lead Prosecutor Bill Kunkle and Marin Ireland plays Elizabeth Piest.

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How Is ‘Devil in Disguise’ Different From Other Projects About the Notorious Killer?

The limited series makes an effort to focus on Gacy’s victims — something other shows centered around notorious murderers have been chastised for allegedly ignoring. Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy is expected to address the trauma inflicted on the victims’ families and in addition to questions about investigative missteps and systemic failures that led to Gacy evading the law for so long.

What Else Has Peacock Released About John Wayne Gacy?

In 2021, Peacock released a six-part series titled John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise, which contained an audio recording of Gacy and exclusive interviews with people who knew him.

“If there are more victims out there and they could be connected to him, it would give resolution to any families who are still searching for answers,” executive producer Alexa Danner said at the time about the docuseries.

Zachery Ty Bryan has faced major ups and downs over the years after becoming a household name.

Bryan got his big break when he was cast as Brad Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement. The show, which ran from 1991 to 1999, also starred Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Taran Noah Smith.

While the sitcom was a hit, Bryan struggled to navigate life after stardom.

“If you star in a TV show today, you can be in any film that you want, but back then, it was the polar opposite,” Bryan told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023. “You were stigmatized as a TV star, and no matter how good your audition, you were never going to be taken seriously. But I kept at it.”

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Bryan found it “really difficult” to find stability after Home Improvement wrapped, adding, “On the same token, you might get turned down on a bunch of projects, but you could go out at night and hang out with your buddies at Mel’s Diner and everybody knows you.”

After pivoting from acting to producing, Bryan was involved in projects including Prowl, Rogue River and The Grief Tourist. His legal woes have overshadowed his post-Home Improvement career.

In October 2020, Bryan was arrested for allegedly strangling his partner Johnnie Faye Cartwright. Us Weekly confirmed that Bryan agreed to a plea deal in the domestic violence case, agreeing to plead guilty to menacing and fourth-degree assault.

Bryan, who remained in a relationship with Cartwright, later claimed the incident was “blown out of proportion.”

“We got really loud. We were screaming and because we were in a townhome that had [thin walls], everybody could hear,” he told THR in June 2023, alleging that he and Cartwright didn’t “even really get that physical” before he was arrested. “At the end of the day, [the police] throw a bunch of counts at you because they ultimately want you to plead to something. I could’ve fought it — but that’s more stress and drama.”

Celebrity Mugshots

While reflecting on his personal struggles, Bryan said he considered it all a lesson. “I do know when things get in the way of who you’re meant to be, where you’re supposed to go and what God has planned for you,” he continued at the time. “He sometimes challenges you to do some reflecting by looking in the mirror and taking responsibility.”

Bryan has since been charged several more times for domestic violence and a DUI.

Keep scrolling for Bryan’s ups and downs over the years:

1990s

After being raised by his parents in Denver, Bryan started acting by appearing in local print and TV ads. He later appeared at a showcase in New York City, which caught the eye of a talent rep that convinced Bryan and his family to move to California. Bryan was subsequently cast as the oldest Taylor child on Home Improvement.

“Obviously, my life flipped upside down and everywhere you go, people know who you are, but I give a lot of credit to my dad and my mom because they always kept me grounded,” Bryan told THR in June 2023 while calling his time on the sitcom as “some of the best days” of his life.

Early 2000s

Bryan remained a consistent onscreen presence with roles on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Boston Public, Family Law, Center of the Universe and Veronica Mars. After appearing in several 2009 projects including Meteor and THOR: Hammer of the Gods, Bryan took a break from being in front of the camera and became a producer on multiple films.

2007-2020

While attending La Cañada High School, Bryan met and started dating Carly Matros. The couple, who tied the knot in 2007, expanded their family with twin girls in 2014. Matros gave birth to their third daughter in 2016 and a son in 2019. Following 13 years of marriage, Bryan and Matros called it quits in 2020.

'Home Improvement' Cast: Where Are They Now?

May 2020

Bryan entered a guilty plea after being booked for a DUI. He was sentenced to five years of probation and 18 months of a multiple-offender alcohol program due to a past record of DUI arrests.

October 2020

Bryan’s legal issues continued when he was arrested for allegedly strangling Cartwright, who he started dating after his divorce from Matros. He received three years of probation, which included attending a violence intervention program called Bridges2Safety. As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed to drop six other charges against him, including strangulation and coercion.

2021-2022

In the aftermath of his arrest, Bryan and Cartwright stayed together and got engaged in November 2021. The pair have since welcomed three kids. He made a TV comeback in Netflix’s 2022 series The Guardians of Justice.

June 2023

In a profile about Bryan, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that he was accused of running a fraudulent agriculture-technology startup scheme. Several sources told the publication that Bryan would allegedly take individual payments ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 in exchange for fake contracts. Bryan was accused of earning close to $50,000 from the scheme.

Bryan told THR he was not “running some shady scam deal” and claimed he was in “in the same boat” as his investors. He also addressed his past arrests, which he called a “learning experience,” adding, “I thank God for that. I went through a situation that I’m sure plenty of people across the globe experience with their partners.”

He maintained that he was still in a relationship with Cartwright, who declined to provide a statement at the time.

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July 2023

One month after the tell-all interview, Bryan was arrested in Eugene, Oregon, following an alleged physical domestic dispute with a woman. He was charged with two felonies and one misdemeanor — assault, robbery and harassment.

Bryan pleaded guilty to felony assault in the fourth degree constituting domestic violence in court during an October 2023 hearing. The second count was dismissed as part of a negotiated resolution.

Instead of spending 19 to 20 months in the Oregon Department of Corrections, Bryan received a “downward dispositional departure” to 36 months of supervised probation, seven days in jail and he had to abide by a set of conditions typical of domestic violence cases.

Cartwright, meanwhile, broke her silence on Bryan’s legal troubles, telling Us in August 2023, “Trauma can bring struggles in many shapes and forms. It’s a horrible situation that’s going to be spun in so many ways. I’ve learned firsthand the truth will never align with what’s been put out there.”

She continued: “I ask everyone to please be respectful of our privacy for the sake of the children and our families so the healing process can begin.”

February 2024

Bryan was arrested for a suspected DUI with three or more priors. According to court documents obtained by Us, Bryan was booked by the La Quinta Police Department for contempt of court as well after he was pulled over at a traffic stop.

A spokesperson told TMZ that the authorities stopped Bryan’s vehicle at 2 A.M. because he was suspected of being involved in a traffic collision. Bryan allegedly showed signs of impairment, which led to his arrest. His next court date was set for April 2024.

TMZ reported in March 2024 that Bryan was charged with a felony after the arrest. He is facing additional charges due to having a DUI conviction within the last 10 years and this is Bryan’s fourth DUI charge. He is also facing a misdemeanor charge of a hit and run and property damage.

January 2025

Us confirmed Bryan was arrested and booked for second-degree domestic violence in South Carolina on January 2. Law enforcement told TMZ that Myrtle Beach officers responded to a residence for a domestic issue.

Police determined that Bryan had gotten into a physical altercation and he was subsequently arrested. Bryan is currently incarcerated and a bond has been set at $10,000.

The Orioles agreed with veteran right-hander Charlie Morton on a one-year deal.

Hisense has a track record of releasing impressive short-throw projector options that offer a well-executed Google TV experience. The Hisense L9Q is the company’s latest high-end projector, and it features a laser system that can reach an impressive 5,000 lumens, hitting the nail on the head when it comes to uninterrupted daytime viewing.

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