LOS ANGELES, Calif. /California Newswire/ — In his new book, “You Shouldn’t Have to Kill to Get Ahead: Reimagining Wealth, Power and Belonging in America” (ISBN: 978-1968339180 [paperback]; 978-1968339173 [ebook]; 978-1968339197 [hardcover]; Legacy Launch Pad Publishing), author, Army Veteran and former political candidate Chris Rivers lays bare the broken promises of the American Dream and offers a path forward for a nation at a breaking point.

A working-class kid from Naugatuck, Connecticut, Rivers saw firsthand how money determined opportunity. At 17, he enlisted in the Army National Guard. By his twenties, he was leading combat missions in Afghanistan, watching Soldiers lose limbs in blasts, and asking the same haunting questions his troops did: Why are we still here? What are we dying for?

“You Shouldn’t Have to Kill to Get Ahead” combines memoir, military leadership lessons and policy insight. Rivers shows how wealth, power and belonging-the three forces he identifies as central to the American experiment-have been hijacked by elites. The result, he argues, is a country where working Americans must fight wars abroad or grind themselves down at home just to survive.

The book unfolds in three parts: his childhood and military service, his years studying public policy at Georgetown and seeing our policy systems in action while running for office and finally his blueprint for building a government that works for people, not billionaires.

“I know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, to serve your country, and to wonder if the sacrifice is worth it. This book is about charting a way out of that trap-for me, for my Soldiers and for every American family,” Rivers says.

Rivers argues that the US must decouple wealth from political power, build a new marketplace of ideas and foster a sense of belonging that can unite rather than divide. Without these changes, he warns, America risks sliding further into political violence and economic despair.

“You Shouldn’t Have to Kill to Get Ahead” is a wake-up call and a rallying cry. It urges Americans across the spectrum to demand a fairer, more resilient future-one where service, sacrifice and dignity don’t come at the cost of survival.

“The average American family shouldn’t need two and a half jobs just to survive,” Rivers says. “We need leaders who will fight for working people with the urgency of someone who’s actually lived it.”

Chris Rivers’s memoir, “You Shouldn’t Have to Kill to Get Ahead”, is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major online booksellers. Discover more at https://www.chrisrivers.com/book.

ABOUT LEGACY LAUNCH PAD PUBLISHING

Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique founder-led book publishing company trusted by high-income entrepreneurs to build seven-figure authority. Its authors have become Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling writers, landed TEDx talks based on their books and appeared on such shows as Today and Good Morning America as well as in major outlets, including The New York Times and USA Today. For more information, visit https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/.

Learn More: https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/

This version of news story was published on and is Copr. © 2026 California Newswire® (CaliforniaNewswire.com) – part of the Neotrope® News Network, USA – all rights reserved.

Information is believed accurate but is not guaranteed. For questions about the above news, contact the company/org/person noted in the text and NOT this website.

A hearing kicked off today in Washington, D.C., that could determine whether Google remains in its current form, or if it could face penalties such as selling off its popular Chrome web browser. 

The so-called remedy hearing is the consequence of a court ruling last August that found Google is operating a monopoly and uses its dominant market position to crush rivals and put a lid on innovation. 

The U.S. Department of Justice is arguing that Google should be forced to divest its Chrome browser, which the agency describes as “one of the largest entry points that exists for searches.” By selling Chrome, rivals could have a chance to compete for search queries, the government argues, but such a change would drastically reshape Google’s parent, Alphabet, a tech giant with a $1.8 trillion market valuation. 

“Google can compete, but they simply don’t want to compete on a level playing field,” Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist said on Monday during his opening before the court. “Google is now fearful of competing against rivals who will only get stronger with the proposed remedies in place.”

The hearing comes just days after Google was branded an abusive monopolist in a separate case that ruled the tech giant had illegally exploited some of its online marketing technology to boost profits. The more recent case focused on Google’s online advertising business, which has been built around its search engine and other widely used products, including Chrome and YouTube.

Here’s what to know about the current remedy hearing. 

What is the Google hearing about?

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google has illegally exploited its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation. 

The current hearing is aimed at addressing potential remedies, with Mehta expected to issue a decision by August 2025, according to a November research note from Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan. 

“We are not here to relitigate the case, we are here to ask the court to fix the harm from Google’s unlawful conduct,” said Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater in a Monday statement before the hearing’s opening arguments.

What does the Justice Department want? 

The Justice Department is pushing for several changes, Dahlquist said on Monday during the trial. 

They include:

• Forcing Google to divest the Chrome browser;
• Requiring Google to share some data to help new entrants overcome barriers to entry;
• Syndicating search and advertising data that would allow rivals to use Google’s search results to improve their quality.

Some of the changes sought by the DOJ would last for years, with Sheridan noting that the requirements would “include Google enabling ongoing access to its search index, making available user and ads search data (for up to 10 years), syndicating its search text ads data for up to 1 year and syndicating its search results, ranking signals & query understanding information (for queries originated in the U.S.) for up to 10 years.”

What would happen to Chrome?

Jon Sallet, representing a group of states that joined the Justice Department in the case, said in his opening statements that his first priority is the divestiture of Chrome. 

Chrome is a “massively attractive asset” with over 4.1 billion global users, he added. “This kind of asset doesn’t come up very often.”

Divestitures can happen in a number of ways, such as a spinoff or sale of a business unit. In some cases, the existing shareholders of a company — in this case, Google parent Alphabet — receive new shares in the divested business.

AT&T may be one of the best-known companies to have been broken apart after being accused of operating a monopoly. The phone giant split into several smaller companies as part of a 1982 settlement with the U.S. government, leading to the creation of several smaller regional phone operators, such as Bell South and Bell Atlantic. 

Splitting off Chrome would likely deliver a financial hit to Google’s revenue, Goldman’s Sheridan added. It would not only limit Google Search revenue, but would also restrict search query volume and access to user data, he noted. 

What is Google’s response to the DOJ?

Google attacked the government’s proposed antitrust remedies, with its lead attorney, John Schmidtlein, calling them “fundamentally flawed” and arguing that they would unfairly penalize the company for its innovation.

“Google earned its market position through hard work and ingenuity,” Schmidtlein said.

A divestiture of Chrome would be “far from simple,” he said, noting that the remedy would go beyond the browser to include the open-source Chromium project Google created and has supported for years.

“The decree demands not only Chrome but also everything critical to Chromium’s functionality,” Schmidtlein said. “What does that even mean? They’re leaving it up to a technical committee, but there’s no clarity on what constitutes necessary assets.”

He criticized the process, saying it lacks a clear path for evaluating potential buyers, and warned that Google would effectively be barred from the browser market for 10 years. “I can’t think of an antitrust remedy that approaches this,” he added.

WASHINGTON — Thousands of employees returned to the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters Monday to find overflowing parking lots, long security lines and makeshift office spaces without chairs and other basic supplies.

The FDA is the latest agency scrambling to meet the Trump administration’s return-to-office mandate, part of a flurry of actions — including firings and buyouts — intended to radically shrink the federal workforce. Monday was the first day that all rank-and-file FDA staffers were required to report to offices, including the agency’s 130-acre campus just outside Washington.

The Associated Press spoke with more than a half-dozen FDA staffers who described long lines to park and clear security, followed by hours of hunting for space and supplies in offices that were not designed to accommodate the agency’s full workforce. The staffers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

One staffer described “chaos and lost work hours” for commuting, security lines and shuffled office space.

About half the FDA’s 20,000 scientists, attorneys, inspectors and support staff report to the agency’s main campus in White Oak, Maryland, which until the late 1990s was a naval weapons testing facility.

While many agencies switched to telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA began embracing the practice a decade earlier. Most employees had the option to work from home at least two days a week — flexibility that was seen as a competitive perk for recruiting highly trained experts who can often earn more working in industry.

By 7:30 a.m., many on-campus parking lots were full, with cars parked along side streets, according to employees. Some workers reported waiting up to one hour to clear security checkpoints, and photos viewed by the AP showed lines of employees winding out doorways, along sidewalks and around corners.

Once inside, employees confronted broken desks, missing chairs and locked offices for which they didn’t have keys.

“All of the staff is definitely bending over backwards to make an impossible situation work and get their work done,” said one employee.

Some employees were left to scour the campus for chairs and other essentials.

“People are looting chairs from conference rooms and other buildings,” a staffer said. “We have no supplies. People are hunting around all of the buildings on campus for pads of paper and other basics.”

When employees did get situated, many shared cramped spaces with people from different divisions and teams, making it difficult to hold calls and meetings. Photos shared with the AP show folding chairs and tables setup in hallways and lobbies.

An FDA spokesman said in an email Monday the agency “is continuing its return-to-office activities to ensure staff remain able to conduct their important public health work.”

All the employees told the AP that they brought their own drinking water Monday. That’s due to a monthslong issue involving Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, which was detected at several FDA buildings. The General Service Administration, which oversees federal buildings, has been working on the issue since last summer.

FDA staff received an email earlier this month that all water is safe to drink, but it did not detail the latest testing results or corrective actions taken.

Anthony Lee, who represents the local chapter of the federal union for FDA employees, said the agency has not granted the group’s request for a meeting on the issue.

Asked about the water, one staffer said: “Honestly, none of us have tried it. After months of Legionella warnings, it’s not very inviting.”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

It was not immediately clear what the DOGE staffers were doing or looking for.

Originally Published: March 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM PDT