Mike Rowe doubles down after blasting Kimmel’s ‘tone-deaf’ plumber jokes

After being scorned on social media, "Dirty Jobs" television show veteran Mike Rowe doubled down on his criticism ofJimmy Kimmel's "tone deaf" monologues mocking new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for being a former plumber.

Rowe said he had not noticed hispost about late-night host Kimmel"belittling plumbers" had gone viral, because he had been too busy working.

"I want to apologize for not responding to any of the 22 thousand comments my last post inspired," he wrote. "I've been filming all week and just noticed my observations about Jimmy Kimmel and a former plumber namedMarkwayne Mullinhave gone viral."

Rowe said that Kimmel's digs at Mullin for being a former plumber are evidence of "longstanding stigmas and stereotypes" against blue-collar skilled trade workers as "uneducated, one-dimensional workers who never made it to college."

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"I did not suggest – even remotely - that a plumber was inherently qualified to hold a cabinet position," he wrote on X. "What I said was that being a plumber should not disqualify a person from holding such a position."

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Kimmel, a regular critic of theTrump administration, was recently criticized as elitist for using Mullin's prior experience as a plumbing business owner as evidence that he is unqualified to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

"Trump's got a whole new generation of thinkers lined up, including his newly confirmed secretary ofHomeland Security, Markwayne 'Chuck Mike Bruce Dave' Melon — Mullin. Maybe Melon's better," Kimmel said on air March 24. "He's the now former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That's right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?"

He continued, "But honestly — I mean, if Trump is going to keep picking these unqualified people to run the department, why not have more fun with it? I mean, next time, instead of Markwayne, how about Lil Wayne for Homeland Security? At least we can get a concert out of it, right?"

Kimmel later doubled down, saying, "I'm not upset that the head of Homeland Security used to be a plumber. I'm upset that he isn't still a plumber."

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Jimmy Kimmel Refuses To Back Down After Mocking Secretary Mullin Over Plumbing Background

Rowe had ripped late-night host Kimmel for the dig, saying he took offense at the "suggestion that skilled workers should never evolve into something new."

He asked if Mullin's career progression from plumbing business owner to Congress and then to a top Cabinet official is "not the embodiment of the American Dream?"

On Friday, he wrote that stereotypes reinforced by jokes like Kimmel's are contributing to a critical shortage of American skilled laborers.

"Reasonable people can disagree as to what is funny and what isn't. Frankly, I couldn't care less. What I do care about," he wrote, "is the extraordinary shortage of plumbers and electricians our country is facing, and the longstanding stigmas and stereotypes that continue to discourage people from considering a lucrative career in the skilled trades."

"Jimmy's joke – and his audience's reaction to it," wrote Rowe, "is proof positive that those stigmas and stereotypes are alive and well."

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Digging even deeper, Rowe asked, "What do their credentials and diplomas have to do with their actual competency? Are we not already surrounded by a legion of perfectly qualified experts who don't know what the hell they're doing?"

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"Jimmy is entitled to his opinion, along with anyone else who believes that Mullin is unqualified to lead the DHS," he wrote on X. "The Constitution, however, says otherwise, and so does the Senate."

Rowe, who runs a nonprofit promoting skilled labor careers called the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, concluded by encouraging people to launch a career in the skilled trades, saying, "Who knows? Could be the first step on your road to President."

Fox News Digital reached out to spokespeople for Kimmel for comment.

Original article source:Mike Rowe doubles down after blasting Kimmel's 'tone-deaf' plumber jokes

byNeo

in

April 04, 2026

Mike Rowe doubles down after blasting Kimmel’s ‘tone-deaf’ plumber jokes

After being scorned on social media, "Dirty Jobs" television show veteran Mike Rowe doubled down on his critici...

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Russia again claims to have taken an eastern Ukrainian region. The real picture is very different

This week, for the third time since its full-scale invasion ofUkraine,Russiaclaimed it fully occupied Ukraine's Luhansk region.

TheRussian militaryhas held almost all of Luhansk – one of four eastern regions that Moscow has illegally sought to annex - since the first year of the conflict.

It's unclear why Russia felt the need to announce -again - that its forces had "completed the liberationof the entire territory of the Luhansk People's Republic," as it calls the region.

Analysts note that the Russia Defense ministry has a habit of exaggerating advances when the frontlines are scarcely changing.

Russian gains in Ukraine slowed in the first three months of this year to about five km (three miles) a day, compared to 11 kilometers in the first quarter of 2025, war monitors, including the Washington-basedInstitute for the Study of War(ISW),report. And in some parts of the battlefield, the Ukrainians have made gains.

Ukraine scoffed at the claim that all of Luhansk was now under Russian control.

"The front line hasn't moved much at all over the past six months. It's like some kind of April Fools' Day prank on their part," said a Ukrainian military spokesman, Victor Tregubov.

Ukraine's Third Army Corps, tasked with defending Luhansk, said the Russians had unsuccessfully launched 144 assault attempts on two villages in its attempts to complete the capture of the region.

On the same day as the defense ministry's claim, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should have already ordered Ukrainian forces out of the entire Donbas region, calling the withdrawal necessary to end the "hot phase" of the war.

TheDonbasincludes Luhansk and Donetsk, about 20% of which Ukraine still holds.

"Kremlin claims in 2025 and 2026 about seizing [Luhansk] are aggrandizing miniscule changes on the front… in order to create the false impression that Russian forces are rapidly advancing on various sectors of the battlefield," the ISW said after the latest Russian declaration.

Russia's announcement was "aimed at portraying Ukrainian defenses as on the verge of collapse to drive the United States and Ukraine's other partners into forcing Ukraine to unnecessarily cede territory that Russian forces are very unlikely to seize militarily in the medium term, if at all," ISW concluded.

The "liberation" of Luhansk was previously claimed in2022and again last June, when the Kremlin-appointed governor of Luhansk, Leonid Pasechnik said "100%" of the region was now under the control of Russian forces.

In October, Russian President VladimirPutinsaid Russia had only 0.13% of the region left to capture.

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Over the past week, Ukrainian drones have struck Russian fuel tanks and ammunition depots some 100 kilometers (65 miles) from the front lines in Luhansk, as well as a Russian air defense system more than 130 kilometers from the region's border, according to geolocated video.

The broader picture shows that Ukrainian forces made their most significant gains over the winter since an incursion into Russia's Kursk region in 2024. Their greatest progress has been in the south, where they have taken some 400 sq km in Zaporizhzhia – another region claimed by Russia.

Ukrainian forces also retook at least 180 sq km in and around Kupyansk in the north in December and have largely held the gains, according to ISW.

Ukraine's commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said last week that Ukrainian forces are prioritizing counterattacks in areas where Russian forces are weakest.

"The enemy is currently playing by our rules. It is forced to adjust and concentrate its efforts where we are advancing," Syrskyi said.

The goal is to force the Russian military to reallocate troops to different areas to respond to attacks, just as the Russians have tried to pull Ukrainian defenses in different directions.

Late last month, a well-known pro-Kremlinmilitary blogger,Yuri Podolyaka - who has nearly three million subscribers on Telegram - expressed doubt over whether Russian forces can reverse an unfavorable battlefield situation in coming months and complained about "rather successful" Ukrainian counterattacks.

Ukrainian forces were "surpassing" Russian forces in their ability to adapt, Podolyaka said, and the military leadership in Moscow had failed to adapt to better Ukrainian interceptor drones.

Ukraine is also trying to take advantage of the scale of Russian losses.

"Russian losses this March have reached their highest level since the start of the war,"Zelenskyclaimed Friday.

"Our drone strikes alone resulted in 33,988 Russian servicemembers killed or seriously wounded, while artillery and other strikes eliminated another 1,363 Russian occupiers."

"That means more than 35,000 Russian losses in just one month," Zelensky said.

"Russian advances have significantly slowed as Russian forces continue to suffer personnel losses and increasingly rely on poorly trained and underequipped infantry to make gains," ISW noted last week.

However, Ukraine is also facing deep personnel shortages along many parts of the frontline, and Zelensky hasexpressed concernthat the war in the Middle East may lead to there being less US weaponry available, especially air defense missiles – hundreds of which have been sentto defend Gulf countries.

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byNeo

in

April 04, 2026

Russia again claims to have taken an eastern Ukrainian region. The real picture is very different

This week, for the third time since its full-scale invasion ofUkraine,Russiaclaimed it fully occupied Ukraine's Luhan...

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Dee Freeman, “The Young and the Restless” and “ER ”actress, dies at 66 after lung cancer diagnosis

Dee Freeman, a character actress who appeared on shows likeThe Young and the RestlessandER, has died. She was 66.

The actress' familyconfirmedher death in an Instagram post on Friday.

"On behalf of her family, it is with deepest sadness that we share this update with you," the post read. "Dee passed away peacefully on April 2, 2026 after a brave and fearless fight with cancer.  Thank you to everyone who supported Dee during her battle. It blew her away to know how many people cared about her and were pulling for her. We know Dee is up there in heaven being the force of nature she always was. Now she's doing it with her angel wings on. Rest in peace, Dee."

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Freeman appeared in three episodes ofThe Young and the Restless, first playing a nurse in an ep in 1997 and again as a nurse in two episodes in 2009. She also acted in 24 episodes of the comedy showPretty the Seriesbetween 2010 and 2015. She most recently appeared in the Tyler Perry showSistasin January.

Born in Louisiana in 1959, Freeman joined the Marines before becoming an actress. She made her screen debut in a 1995 episode ofCoach, and appeared on shows likeParty of Fiveand3rd Rock from the Sunthe following year. Later in the 1990s, she appeared in episodes of shows likeSeinfeld,Caroline in the City,Suddenly Susan,Kenan & Kel,The Gregory Hines Show,Silk Stockings, andRude Awakenings. She also appeared in movies likeRed Meatstarring Lara Flynn Boyle andThe Landladystarring Talia Shire in this period.

This is a developing story.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

byNeo

in

April 04, 2026

Dee Freeman, “The Young and the Restless” and “ER ”actress, dies at 66 after lung cancer diagnosis

Dee Freeman, a character actress who appeared on shows likeThe Young and the RestlessandER, has died. She was 66. ...

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Judge halts Trump effort requiring colleges to show they aren’t considering race in admissions

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday halted efforts by the Trump administration to collect data that proves higher education institutions aren't considering race in admissions.

The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV in Boston granting the preliminary injunction followsa lawsuitfiled earlier this month by a coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general. It will only apply to public universities in plaintiffs

The federal judge said the federal government likely has the authority to collect the data, but the demand was rolled out to universities in a "rushed and chaotic" manner.

"The 120-day deadline imposed by the President led directly to the failure of NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) to engage meaningfully with the institutions during the notice-and-comment process to address the multitude of problems presented by the new requirements," Saylor wrote.

President Donald Trump ordered the data collection in August after he raised concerns that colleges and universities were using personal statements and other proxies to consider race, which he views as illegal discrimination.

In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against the use ofaffirmative action in admissionsbut said colleges could still consider how race has shaped students' lives if applicants share that information in their admissions essays.

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The states argue the data collection risks invading student privacy and leading to baseless investigations of colleges and universities. They also argued that universities have not been given enough time to collect the data.

"The data has been sought in such a hasty and irresponsible way that it will create problems for universities," a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Michelle Pascucci, told the court, adding that the effort seem was aimed at uncovering unlawful practices.

The Education Department has defended the effort, arguing taxpayers deserve transparency on how money is spent at institutions that receive federal funding.

The administration's policy echoessettlement agreementsthe government negotiated withBrown UniversityandColumbia University, restoring their federal research money. The universities agreed to give the government data on the race, grade-point average and standardized test scores of applicants, admitted students and enrolled students. The schools also agreed to be audited by the government and to release admissions statistics to the public.

The National Center for Education Statistics is to collect the new data, including the race and sex of colleges' applicants, admitted students and enrolled students. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has said the data, which was originally due by March 18, must be disaggregated by race and sex and retroactively reported for the past seven years.

If colleges fail to submit timely, complete and accurate data, the administration has said McMahon can take action under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which outlines requirements for colleges receiving federal financial aid for students.

The Trump administration separately hassued Harvard Universityover similar data, saying it refused to provide admissions records the Justice Department demanded to ensure the school stopped using affirmative action. Harvard has said the university has been responding to the government's requests and is in compliance with the high court ruling against affirmative action. On Monday, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights directed Harvard to comply with the data requests within 20 days for face referral to the U.S. Justice Department.

byNeo

in

April 04, 2026

Judge halts Trump effort requiring colleges to show they aren’t considering race in admissions

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday halted efforts by the Trump administration to collect data that proves higher edu...

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