I did not know this until I saw it mentioned on X (formerly Twitter).  When a company hires J1 student temporary or season employees, they do not have to pay the 7.5% FICA or Social Security tax on the wages.

If a company hires a seasonal American student, they have to pay the 7.5%. If the company hires a foreign student, they don’t.  This creates a perverse incentive for private equity firms, companies or corporations to hire foreign seasonal workers.  This is true, I checked it out.

Apparently, this is now the common approach within the hospitality industry to save money and increase profit from payrolls. Unfortunately, this approach puts young Americans at a disadvantage when seeking summer or short-term seasonal employment.

For fiscal Year 2025: The U.S. State Department processed 506,142 applications and successfully issued 451,803 J-1 visas.

Now, obviously there may be some regions or areas where there are not enough young people to fill the jobs.  However, if you do the math that 7.5% employer contribution saved is a lot of incentive for the corporation to avoid hiring seasonal American workers.

One student making $20/hr x 500 hours worked (over 3 months) = $10,000 payroll.  The company has to pay an additional $750 in social security if the student is American.  The $750 is saved if they use a foreign J1 student worker.

If the hospitality organization hires 20 seasonal workers for 3 months, using the J1 visa process saves them $15,000 in taxes.

A private equity group, multinational owner or corporation running the business is likely to be looking at the bottom line.

Additionally, this J1 entry allows the overall immigration system to be abused if the person doesn’t leave the USA at the conclusion of their employment.  How many illegal aliens are created by those who enter under a J1 visa and never leave?

Suspicious Cat is now aware, and, well, increasingly suspicious:

Source

For many Americans, cracking open a diet soda is a small daily treat – fizzy and sweet, with none of the calories or sugar of standard soft drinks.

But a new study suggests that even diet drinks could be turbocharging brain aging.

Researchers in Brazil honed in on aspartame, a sugar-substitute 200 times sweeter than table sugar found in diet soda and sugar-free desserts.

In a study of nearly 13,000 adults, the team found people who consumed about the same amount of aspartame found in one can of diet soda experienced 1.6 extra years of cognitive aging compared to those who consumed minimal amounts.

Even those consuming less than a can’s worth of aspartame experienced 1.3 years added years of brain aging.

And in cognitive tests, this group had more than a 60 percent faster decline in thinking and memory skills, showing a ‘clear difference’ between those consuming the most and least aspartame.

As the brain ages, certain structures begin to break down, including the volume of the frontal cortex and protective myelin covering nerve cells. This leads to slowed processing speed and memory, signs of cognitive decline.

The researchers cautioned, however, that the study cannot prove aspartame directly causes cognitive decline and that conditions like diabetes can contribute to the heightened risk.

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Marxist streamer Hasan Piker has emerged as an increasingly visible, if unofficial, spokesman for the Democratic Socialists of America’s rapidly expanding political action network. He campaigned for Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong while cultivating close ties with socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

From an electoral-risk perspective, Piker is becoming a liability for Democrats. His far-left, anti-American rhetoric provides Republicans with what we called “a gift” last week. Even Hillary Clinton warned on Friday that the GOP’s “anti-communist messaging is very effective.”

The Democratic Party’s failure to formally denounce Piker and distance itself from his agenda…

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SALISBURY, Md. – The Wicomico County Fair returns to WinterPlace Park in Salisbury this Friday-Sunday, Aug. 14-16.

The event is produced by Wicomico Farm & Home Show and Wicomico County, and it is presented by Perdue, Toyota, Piedmont, Baths by Spicer Bros., IBEW and Carter Machinery.

This year’s event celebrates 90 years of Fair traditions.

“The Fair serves to showcase the importance of agriculture on the shore in a family-friendly atmosphere,” said Zach Evans, chairman of the Wicomico County Fair. “We are honored to be celebrating our 90^th anniversary, and grateful to the community for continuing to support the event.”

Returning fair events include the Maryland High School Rodeo; mounted shooters; 4-H and FFA competitions; livestock shows; watermelon, pie and hot wing eating contests; petting farm; duck races; car shows; music; vendors; and fireworks on Friday.

Exciting new additions include the return of amusement rides and music from Jimmy Charles on Friday evening.

Iran’s state Mehr has purported to release video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei for the ‘first time’ since the start of the war, and since he was wounded in a US-Israeli airstrike in the opening days of the attacks of over five months ago. The state-released footage is titled “First Images of the Leader” – and shows the Ayatollah addressing students, after months of speculation over his status, or whether he is even alive. He has not been seen or heard from directly since the war began, amid conflicting reports and accounts. The video has no date or location given. It appears to be in response to recent Israeli media reports alleging his deteriorating health.

However, analysts – as well as social media users in Iran – were quick to identify the footage as old material from his past lectures in Qom. This has in turn resulted in accusations of a cover-up, and that Tehran is in damage control concerning his status. For example, one hawkish US-based think tank researcher and pundit, Jason Brodsky, has commented on the released footage as follows:

This footage is old, from before the war. It was first circulating in March. It’s telling Iran’s regime’s Mehr News feels the need to circulate old video of Mojtaba.

Foreign press reports, including Russian and Chinese state channels, have been reporting the footage soon on the heels of Iranian state media circulating it…

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How are dead Democrats supposed to produce an ID to vote?

Dimwit Kamala Harris, likely the densest candidate to ever run for president, a woman who struggled to complete full sentences without some nonsensical rambling diatribe, spoke out against the SAVE Act on Friday.

Unfortunately, she thought it was a good idea to post her thoughts on social media.
Big mistake.

She obviously is unaware of her limitations.

On Friday, Kamala Harris warned Americans that the SAVE America Act will force people to prove who they are to vote!
The horror!

Kamala Harris:  This president is trying to push this SAVE Act, which basically would require that for people to register to vote, you’re gonna have to have proof of who you are through a passport, which a lot of Americans don’t have, or a birth certificate. Same point, obstacles to make it difficult for you to register to vote.

And then you got the states. 19 states have already passed laws to make it more difficult to vote, and the ones that that haven’t passed a law are doing it in practice in many places around our country. Why? ‘Cause they’re scared of you. They are scared of your power, the power you have, the power of your voice through your vote.

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Duke University Law School is being credibly accused of discriminating against white and Asian students in admissions and the Trump DOJ is already investigating.

The Civil Rights Division under Harmeet Dhillon put out a brutal press release, which we have included below.

First, the basic facts, from The Hill:

DOJ accuses Duke Law of racial discrimination against white, Asian applicants

The Justice Department (DOJ) concluded an investigation into Duke University School of Law, determining the school unlawfully discriminated against white and Asian applicants in admissions for three past incoming classes.

In a findings letter released Thursday, the department’s Civil Rights Division said Duke Law took racial diversity into consideration when admitting students to its 2023, 2024 and 2025 classes, violating the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that severely limited the use of race in college admissions.

“Duke Law School doesn’t get a free pass to discriminate against white and Asian students simply because it thinks it has good intentions,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. “Using ‘diversity’ essay questions to identify preferred races for admission is still illegal discrimination based on race.”…

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The sister of the man with a lengthy rap sheet who was arrested for randomly assaulting women in Dilworth, North Carolina, has spoken out on her brother’s crimes, revealing that left-wing judges keep releasing him despite pleas from the family to “get my brother in an institution.”

In an interview, Hunt’s sister, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed that she has tried pleading with law enforcement, attorneys, and even judges to get her brother off the street before he kills somebody.

Still, he has been released every time he assaults somebody and likely will be released soon after his latest assault case.

“From what I know, his diagnoses are paranoid schizophrenia, PTSD, and bipolar disorder,” she said. She further said that Hunt had previously attacked herself and their mother, leading to calls to the police.

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The Democrat party leadership—sensing its mortal danger from a very well-organized and radicalized Islamo-socialist movement—is trying to stay afloat, claiming that the Democrat Party is a “big tent” where the socialists can find a welcome home:

But ironically, as the “big tent” expands, the number of constituencies inside the tent shrinks.

The traditional power bases of the Democrat party, the working class and minorities, are not part of the Islamo-socialist movement. Instead, the “socialist” part is comprised almost uniformly of downwardly mobile, white college-credentialed losers.

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A former United States Department of Agriculture program director was sentenced earlier this week to 24 months in prison in connection with a kickback scheme.

Kirk Perry, 62, and his nephew, Jamarea Grant, 32, of Cleveland, Ohio, conspired to bill the government nearly $400,000 for work that Grant did not actually perform.

Perry, of Lorain, Ohio, pleaded guilty April 29, 2025, before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to conspiracy to commit money laundering, property and honest services wire fraud. His nephew, Grant, pleaded guilty on Nov. 27, 2024, to the same charge.

 “Kirk Perry brazenly abused his position of authority and betrayed the public trust by diverting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for his own benefit,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro. “Today’s sentence makes clear that he will be required to repay the very funds he siphoned from the American taxpayer and serve a prison term for his conduct. My office will continue to pursue anyone who exploits a government role for personal gain and ensure that taxpayer money is protected from fraud and abuse.”

In addition to the 24-month prison term, Judge Kollar-Kotelly ordered Perry to serve two years of supervised release and to pay restitution of $399,319. Federal prosecutors had requested restitution and a prison term of 33 to 41 months.

“The sentence issued today reflects our commitment to thoroughly investigate fraud, waste, and abuse by those entrusted with high-level government positions. This employee not only abused his authority by ensuring a family member was hired on contracts he oversaw, but he also devised a scheme ultimately to direct these monies to himself,” said Special Agent in Charge Jeldrys Lowry of the USDA OIG Sensitive Investigations Office. “Uncovering fraud requires diligent review and the USDA OIG will relentlessly pursue these illicit schemes ensuring taxpayer dollars are safeguarded. We are grateful to our partners at the USAO for their support in bringing this investigation to its culmination.”

Incumbent Rick Meehan, left, and Council President Matt James will both seek the mayoral seat in this fall’s municipal election.

Churchill Downs discloses plan in federal filing, says no timetable established

The Wicomico County Solid Waste Division is pleased to announce that the finishing touches are being made at our Hebron Convenience Center, and the station will be back open to our Residential Household Permit holders as of Wednesday August 12, 2026 at 8:00 AM. The site recently underwent a full renovation, including; full dock and bulkhead replacement, earth work, a new 24×80’ concrete base and pad, and site beautification. Our team is proud to present the finished product and we look to bringing projects like this to bear, as we prioritize other locations across the County.

If you are a regular customer of our Hebron site, please note that our waste-oil and antifreeze collection station is still being renovated at this time. If you are in need of disposal of these products, please visit our main Solid Waste Campus on Brick Kiln Road, or the next closest Convenience Center to your home. The full list of stations can be found here; at Convenience/Recycle Center Information | Wicomico County, MD – Official Website

We hope to have the Hebron waste-oil/antifreeze collection back up and running in a few weeks.

Far leftist YouTube streamer Hasan Piker called out moderate Democrats who don’t fall in line with the left’s agenda.

During a recent stream, Piker reacted to Fox News coverage of Michigan progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly won his primary race.

During the stream, he called for the Democrat Party to embrace “Marxist-Leninist” ideology and said those who don’t support El-Sayed and the socialist movement should be punished.

“Notice how whenever someone comes out and says, ‘yeah, that’s actually a bad association,’ immediately it’s weaponized by the Republicans,” he said. “This is why you can’t. This is why you have to have discipline. This is why you have to abide by the party line. Okay. You can’t be out here doing that. You can’t be out here saying like, ‘oh, I’m a centrist Democrat and I think Abdul is a bridge too far.’”

Piker continued, saying “That must be punished” and “If there’s one Marxist-Leninist doctrine that the Democratic Party should deploy, it’s that. Okay, follow the party line.”

“Sure, we’ll have robust democracy, a robust democratic back and forth internally within the party. But once it’s over, once the winner is declared, no more factionalism. It’s over. Abide by the party line,” Piker added.

Piker has drawn criticism for past controversial statements he made. During a livestream after a trip to China, he said, “I got stopped by a cop who thought I was making fun of Mao Zedong, which I never would and never will.”

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OMG. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. The new flu vaccine is out. And it’s based on the deadly, failed mRNA Covid vaccine.

And once again Big Pharma and your bribed government is urging every American to take it.

“Trust Us.”

This comes at the same moment Dr. Fauci proved that he’s a fraud, scam artist and mass murderer, and proved “SCIENCE” is now the same as organized crime.

This comes as Dr.Fauci took the 5th 111 times like the head of the Gambino Crime Family.

This comes as we learned from his own diaries that Dr. Fauci is a pathological liar, scam artist and psychopath.

This comes as we now know Dr. Fauci funded the research to create the Covid pandemic, and then tried desperately to cover it up.

This comes as we now know that Fauci was so excited by his own fame, he couldn’t care less that thousands of Americans per day were dying from the Covid pandemic.

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Donald Trump has delivered a stunning prediction about his party’s chances to maintain power in the upcoming midterm elections while fretting over discontented Republican voters.

As the midterm elections approach and Republicans in Congress hit the campaign trail, the President is concerned whether conservative voters will show up to vote this fall – especially because the name Trump is not on the ballot.

‘If I don’t run, will those people go out and vote, and that’s the one thing I can’t tell,’ Trump told Punchbowl News in an interview released Friday.

Then the President revealed his greatest open question about the coming elections and conservative voters: ‘Will they vote?’

‘A lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you … they are not angry with me, but they are angry with Republicans.’

Republicans’ odds of keeping control of both chambers of Congress are glum, at least according to prediction markets.

As it stands, Republicans have less than a 20 percent chance of maintaining control of the House, per Kalshi data. In the Senate, Republicans’ odds of staying in power are much more favorable at 54 percent.

But the President has a trick up his sleeve to help Republicans – he has a massive political war chest that he can deploy to help his party members campaign against their Democratic opponents.

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A former contestant on the Ultimate Cowboy Showdown has been sentenced to over a decade behind bars for savagely beating an elderly man to a pulp.

Ethan Treadwell, 43, was handed a sentence of 10 years in state prison with a further 15 years suspended for a brutal attack on William ‘Junior’ Hicks, 74, in January 2024.

Prosecutors said Treadwell flew into a violent frenzy when Hicks confronted him outside his cattle farm in Hobart, Oklahoma, about money that was owed to him.

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Ahead of today’s jobs report, in our payrolls preview we warned that “July Has Emerged As A Very Poor Month For Jobs” and boy were we right: moments ago the BLS reported that in July, the US labor force shrank by a whopping 23K, sharply lower from a downward revised 20K in June (from 57K), and the worst print since the negative 156K in February.

As noted above, the -23K print was below all estimates…

… and was a 5-sigma miss to estimates…

… as the 80K median estimate was missed by more than 100K.

And here come the Biden admin tricks of massive prior revisions: the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised down by 66,000, from +129,000 to  +63,000, and the change for June was revised down by 37,000, from +57,000 to +20,000. With these revisions, employment in May and June combined is 103,000 lower than previously reported

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Government fraud equaling as much as 15% of overall spending “is just the tip of the iceberg,” Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., told Newsmax on Friday.

Meuser, appearing on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” said the scale of fraud involving taxpayer dollars could approach $1 trillion as the Trump administration and congressional Republicans push for tougher enforcement.

“The fraud is extensive,” Meuser said. “It literally could be as much as 10 to 15% of our overall spend. That gets into the neighborhood of almost $1 trillion.”

Meuser, chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, participated this week in a White House roundtable with Vice President JD Vance focused on combating fraud and abuse in government programs.

Vance said the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force has identified $230 billion in fraudulent payments from taxpayer-funded benefit programs and stopped another $56 billion from reaching suspected scammers.

He urged Congress to codify the administration’s anti-fraud efforts so a future administration could not simply reverse them.

Meuser said lawmakers are working on legislation that would increase penalties for fraud, strengthen the authority of law enforcement and state attorneys general, and better coordinate efforts among the FBI, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, telecommunications companies, and social media platforms.

“We’re going to make a difference,” Meuser said, calling the effort his “top priority.”

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President Donald Trump signed two executive orders Thursday cracking down on birth tourism and narrowing who qualifies for automatic birthright citizenship, responding to a Supreme Court ruling many conservatives view as having opened the door to abuse of the American immigration system.

The orders follow the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in June in Trump v. Barbara, which found birthright citizenship to be a constitutional right. Trump made clear Thursday he still disagrees. “We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision. So we’re making adjustments because it’s very unfair,” he said, arguing the 14th Amendment was never meant to be exploited this way. “This was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves, and what’s happening now? People are building businesses around it,” Trump said.

The first order identifies categories of children born to noncitizens who do not qualify for birthright citizenship, consistent with historical exceptions the Supreme Court itself recognized in Barbara. The second delegates authority to the secretaries of state and homeland security to shut down birth tourism outright.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the crackdown rests on presidential authority under Section 215A of the Immigration and Nationality Act. “The idea that people come here pretending to be a tourist, pretending to be a visitor, saying they want to go to Disneyland, they want to go visit a monument or go to a national park, but the real reason they’re here is to have a child, to make that child an automatic citizen, leave our country, and then have a U.S. citizen child,” Miller said, warning the loophole “gives them access under this broken system to welfare benefits, ultimately to the voting booth, and all the other rights and privileges that belong solely to Americans.” He called the practice, as of the signing, “hereby banned.”

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The judge overseeing the gang-rape trial of one of Madi Brooks’ alleged attackers is facing scrutiny as her son is attempting to quash his own convictions for a series of rapes.

District Judge Gail Horne Ray is set to preside over the trial of Desmond Carter, 21, on August 17, as he is accused of sexually assaulting Brooks, a 19-year-old Louisiana State University (LSU) student in a car along with two other men in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana in January 2023.

Brooks was then kicked out of the car, it is claimed and struck and killed by another passing car shortly afterwards.

Last month, Judge Ray’s son Nelson Taylor, 46, was hauled back into court as he attempts to have multiple convictions of rape set aside.

In 1997, Taylor pleaded guilty to three counts of forcible rape, and five counts of aggravated burglary, for a series of sex attacks carried out when he was a high school student, reports WBRZ.

The attacks stretched from late 1995 to the spring of 1996, and saw Taylor break into his victim’s homes armed with a gun or a knife.

The then-17-year-old would wear a mask during the rapes and use tape to cover the girls’ eyes and mouths, prosecutors said, with Taylor’s plea deal allowing him to avoid a life sentence.

He received a sentence of 50 years at the time, but was released on parole in 2022 as a Tier 3 sex offender.

Taylor is now trying to have his rape charges and their sentenced set aside, arguing that a similar motion in 2001 was never ruled on by a judge.

He initially filed in November, but the case was delayed as every judge in Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District Court system recused themselves because he is Ray’s son. The Louisiana Supreme Court has since assigned retired First Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Michael McDonald to handle the case.

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Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was arrested last week in Alabama on drug charges following a traffic stop. 

The former rising star in the Democratic Party, who served as Tallahassee Mayor from 2014 to 2018, narrowly lost his gubernatorial bid to Ron DeSantis by just 0.4% in 2018.

Police say they pulled him over for driving erratically on the night of July 2 and found methamphetamine, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia.

He now faces multiple charges, including unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marijuana.

Per TMZ, Gillum was arrested with methamphetamine, cut straws, weed, pipes, and a bong.

“According to the incident report, obtained by TMZ … Gillum was arrested last week on U.S. Highway 98 near Walmart Drive in Daphne, where cops say they found 3 grams of methamphetamine, 8 pre-rolled marijuana joints, 4 cut straws, 3 pipes, and a bong during the bust,” TMZ reported.

It can be recalled that Gillum was previously found inebriated in a hotel room with two other men who had overdosed back in 2020.

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In the wake of their embarrassing World Cup exit, angry USA soccer fans have turned their attention to President Trump following the USA’s 4-1 defeat to Belgium.

On Monday night, the World Cup co-hosts were sent crashing out of the competition after a dismal performance against their European rivals in Seattle.

Mauricio Pochettino‘s side had no answer to the Red Devils’ attacking onslaught, led by striker Charles De Ketelaere – who scored twice and set up another on the night.

To add to their misery, the USA’s players and fans could only sit and watch while their Belgian counterparts openly mocked Trump during their on-field celebrations.

However, while some USA fans were incensed over Belgium’s Trump teasing, other supporters actually joined the pile on with vicious comments on social media.

Those fans pointed to Trump’s controversial involvement in the build-up to the game, having called up FIFA President Gianni Infantino to ask for a further review to the one-game ban which was handed to striker Folarin Balogun in their previous game.

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There could be a major battle brewing between banks, regulators, and merchants.

And caught in the middle of all that might very well be you, the paying customer.

The Wall Street Journal put out a blistering report on Monday highlighting that one bank’s unexpected discovery of a potential loophole has other banks considering that same loophole.

In 2025, Capital One Financial purchased Discover Financial for $50.6 billion.

As part of that acquisition, Capital One gained a financial network that allows it to work more directly with merchants — and with less fear of regulation.

To better explain how this works: When you make a purchase at, say, a Walmart, there are actually three parties that are going to have an interest when you swipe your debit card.

In this case, those parties are Walmart, the bank that issued your debit card, and a payment network — Visa and Mastercard being the two you’ve most likely dealt with.

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Democrats will spend 2026 blaming Republicans for every healthcare complaint coming out of rural America. What they will not mention is that the party actually working to dismantle the program keeping rural hospitals stocked with cancer and HIV drugs is not a party at all. It is the pharmaceutical industry.

New data from HRSA, released July 13, shows ten drugs accounted for 28.6 percent of the record $100 billion spent through the 340B program in 2025, itself a 23 percent jump over the year before. Four of those ten are oncology drugs. Two treat HIV. Merck’s Keytruda alone accounted for $8.9 billion in 340B purchases. Gilead’s Biktarvy, the HIV therapy, was not far behind. Darzalex Faspro, Opdivo, and Imfinzi round out the oncology group, with Descovy as the second HIV drug in the top ten.

The 340B program requires manufacturers who want access to Medicare and Medicaid dollars to sell outpatient drugs at a discount to safety-net hospitals and rural clinics. It costs taxpayers nothing. Hospitals use the savings to keep clinics open and treat patients who could not otherwise afford cancer therapy or HIV medication at all. That the ten drugs eating up nearly a third of the program’s spending are dominated by cancer and HIV treatment is not an accident. Those are the categories where list prices have climbed the fastest, and where rural patients have the least room to absorb the difference.

Every one of these manufacturers belongs to PhRMA, the industry’s chief lobbying arm and the same group pushing to gut 340B through rebate schemes and reporting mandates designed to shift costs onto hospitals instead of the companies setting the prices. It is a fair fight to have. Hospitals are not blameless in this program, and PhRMA’s argument that some large systems use 340B margins to pad revenue rather than serve patients deserves a hearing. But the industry’s preferred fix does not touch list prices. It touches what hospitals get to keep after paying them.

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You will be less than surprised to find out that about a dozen members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) signed a public pledge to support and defend China.

This revelation came as the Chinese government is seeking closer ties with American leftist groups, according to a New York Post report.

11 DSA and DSA International Committee members appeared among over 900 signatories on the pledge. The document states that signatories “resolve to support, defend and build understanding of Chinese socialism.”

It further declares that “the global advance to socialism is indispensable if humanity is to survive and to flourish” while describing capitalism as “totally incapable of solving the problems of poverty and inequality” and “inextricably linked with war, empire, racism, misogyny, alienation, and environmental destruction.”

When it comes to China, the document reads: “We support all states building or aspiring to socialism, and we favour the highest level of unity and friendship between them. We foreground China in particular because its size and level of development give it an objectively critical role in the global transition to socialism.”

It also called the Chinese government “the most prominent force pushing for the establishment of a multipolar system of international relations and a new international economic order” and “a global leader in the struggle to avoid climate breakdown.”

The pledge concludes: “As such, the continued survival of Chinese socialism is a crucial matter not only for the Chinese people but for all humanity.”

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The lights of the Houston Astrodome burned brightly on the evening of Aug. 17, 1992, as thousands of Republican delegates gathered for the party’s national convention. They had come to renominate President George H. W. Bush and begin the general election campaign.

Before the night was over, the convention would be remembered for a speech delivered by the man who had just failed to defeat Bush for the Republican nomination.

The former White House aide Pat Buchanan approached the podium and delivered the speech that became the defining moment of his political career.

“There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America.”

The speech drew immediate backlash. Liberal columnist Molly Ivins wrote that Buchanan’s speech “probably sounded better in the original German.” Many Republicans feared it had overshadowed President Bush’s convention.

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A Rhode Island man whose remarkable survival at birth was officially recognized as a miracle by Pope Leo XIV has been arrested in Virginia in connection with a double shooting.

Tyquan Johnson, 19, was captured Wednesday morning at a residence in Newport News, Virginia, by members of the U.S. Marshals Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Johnson was wanted on charges of felony assault with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a compact area following a July 19 shooting in Newport’s Park Holm neighborhood, according to the Newport RI Police Department.

Two men, ages 22 and 25, were found with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds to their lower extremities. Both were treated and released. Investigators identified Johnson as a suspect; he fled the state. A second individual remains wanted for questioning. Police described both as armed and dangerous.

Italy Suspends Schengen Agreement With Spain Over Ceuta Invasion

After Italy’s government and top French conservative politicians demanded the suspension of Schengen arrangements with Spain following the invasion of 50,000 military-aged illegal aliens in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Euronews reporter Gabriele Barbati reported that Italy’s Interior Ministry had suspended Schengen free-movement rules with Spain and ordered the closure of air and maritime borders between the two countries, citing national security concerns.

GB News reports:

The measure was announced by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Deputy Prime Ministers Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini, and was formally approved earlier today after an Interior Ministry review of migration and border-security risks.

Meloni writes on X:

The Government has decided to temporarily suspend the free movement regime provided for by Schengen in maritime and air connections with Spain, reintroducing border controls. This is an extraordinary measure, adopted to safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our Nation. The measure will be kept in force only for the time necessary, with particular attention to limiting any impact on summer tourist flows. In parallel, Italy is ready to support every European initiative to assist Spanish institutions as needed to restore full control of the Union’s external borders and to address the ongoing situation with determination. Defending borders means defending the safety of citizens, combating irregular immigration, and striking at the criminal networks that traffic human beings.

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You tell me. It sure does look like a Flock Camera system, especially compared to all their other outdoor security cameras. Big Brother is following you.

As some of you know I’ve had a lot of Family/Siblings in town. Last night we chose the Poseidon Restaurant because in the past they actually had really good food. Let me assure you, they not only changed the name they also changed the menu and what you see on line is no longer.

We wanted to go there and get the prime rib, nope! It’s now more of a sports bar menu of which I/we will never go again. 

So share this information with the people you know might have gone to the former restaurant and the sub I received above was way over cooked and damn expensive for what it was. 

Chega said the legislation was intended to protect “liberty, equality and human dignity” and protect women from “situations of exclusion and inferiority.”

Portugal is moving closer to banning burqas and other face veils in public after lawmakers approved legislation backed by the conservative Chega party, with party leader André Ventura arguing that those who insist on wearing the garments “don’t belong” in the country. The proposal, approved by Portugal’s parliament last October, would prohibit burqas and niqabs from being worn in most public places and impose fines ranging from €200 to €4,000 for violations.

It is expected to become law in the coming weeks. Chega said the legislation was intended to protect “liberty, equality and human dignity,” arguing that concealing the face subjects women “to situations of exclusion and inferiority.” “A man who forces a woman to wear a burqa, or a woman who sees it as her greatest virtue, let me tell you, you don’t belong in this country,” Ventura said. “If you want to wear a burqa? It’s really simple! Pack your stuff, catch a flight, and go,” he added. Go to Pakistan, go to Saudi Arabia, go to Morocco… Go wherever the hell you want. Just not here.”

The legislation is waiting on action from President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who in any case, could refer it to Portugal’s Constitutional Court for review. Socialist Party lawmaker Pedro Delgado Alves said: “This initiative is used solely to target foreigners, those who have a different faith.” If enacted, Portugal would join several European countries, including France, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands, that have adopted full or partial restrictions on face coverings in public.

Southern European countries, including socialist-run Spain – which has seen its Ceuta territory invaded – have continued to face sustained migration pressures, prompting Europeans across the continent to plead for border enforcement and a review of asylum and immigration policies. Portugal has also moved toward stricter immigration controls in recent years. The country’s government has pursued measures aimed at tightening residency rules, accelerating deportations for people without legal status, and strengthening border enforcement, while Chega has continued to campaign for broader restrictions on immigration alongside its proposals on cultural integration and public security.

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Barring some wholly unforeseen development, such as Republicans actually mounting an effective challenge somewhere, the 120^th Congress will convene on January 3, 2027 with a record seven Muslim members, six representatives and, for the first time in American history, one senator. And for Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations in the U.S., the future looks bright.

Before 2007, there were no Muslims in the House of Representatives or Senate at all. The seven Muslim legislators who will be sworn in (on the Qur’an, no doubt) in January will include the four representatives in the 119^th Congress: Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.); Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.); Andre Carson (D-Ind.), and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.). Joining them will be the nation’s first Muslim senator, Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.), as well as Reps. Darializa Avila Chevalier (D-N.Y.) and Adam Hamawy (D-N.J.).

After the November elections, there could be more as well, but El-Sayed, Avila Chevalier and Hamawy are virtually assured of election now, as they have nothing to worry about in November. The left, once in power, generally moves to make opposition to its policies progressively (hah) more difficult. In New York, New Jersey, and Michigan, the left has been in power for a long time, and the Republican Party is moribund.

So the number has gone from zero to four to seven, and many more are to come. “Every election cycle, we see more Muslim candidates — not fewer,” crowed Robert McCaw, the executive director of CAIR Action, the explicitly political arm of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). “That’s a clear indication of confidence, growth, and belonging,” McCaw exulted, although it would have been more accurate to say that the growth of Muslim political power in the U.S. is a clear indication of a concerted effort being made in the face of near-total ignorance and/or indifference on the other side.

Hamas-linked CAIR top dog Nihad Awad articulated that effort on August 31, 2024 at a convention of the likewise Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). “Lawmaking,” he stated with equal parts obviousness and ominousness, “is about making laws.” Yes, of course, and that is why Muslims in the U.S. are seeking political power: the idea is to bring Sharia, which is not just religious, but political, supremacist, expansionist and violent, to the United States.

Awad continued: “Today we have 43 State delegates in the United States who are Muslim. If they want to run for Congress, in the next two or four or six years, they can. We may end up, if we are organized, we may end up with about 50 members of Congress in the next six years, if we only plan and put our money where our mouth and our minds are.”

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President Donald Trump’s deputies have tripled the monthly number of judicial deportation orders, enabling officials to exceed their recent deportation records during the next few months.

“They are plowing through these cases like a freaking snowplow in Utah snow,” said Andrew Arthur, a former immigration-court judge who now works with the Center for Immigration Studies. “They’ve dropped the backlog from nearly 4 million down to less than 3.5 million,” he added. 

The Justice Department’s immigration-court judges ordered the removal — or deportation — of 79,000 migrants in June, up from roughly 25,000 in December 2024 when President Joe Biden’s deputies were pulling migrants across U.S. legal barriers.

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The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has become persona non grata for an increasing number of Democrat public figures and wacktivists, primarily for having the audacity to oppose candidates who are anti-Israel and/or otherwise work against the safety and security interests of the millions of Jewish people who call America home.

The bad blood between Democrats and AIPAC has gotten so intense that even some Israel-supporting Democrats, including Jewish Dems, have actively worked to distance themselves from AIPAC in the course of their political campaigns. This is something we saw, for instance, in a mid-April announcement from failed Michigan Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow (D), a state senator whose husband is Jewish.

Later that same month, McMorrow would learn the hard way that her coddling did not pay off, revealing that her husband and their young daughter, who they are raising in the Jewish faith, faced antisemitic slurs at the Michigan Democrat endorsement convention. McMorrow, by the way, is now campaigning for Michigan’s Democrat Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.

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The battlefield for the United States Senate is now fully drawn. With Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic primary this week, the last major piece fell into place, and Americans can finally see the full slate of contests that will determine whether Republicans keep the upper chamber or hand Chuck Schumer the gavel he has coveted for six years.

What the completed map reveals is more interesting than any single poll number. In state after state, Democratic voters were offered a choice between the establishment and the hard left, and they chose the hard left. The 2026 midterms will not merely test Republican strength. They will test whether America is prepared to send Bernie Sanders’ movement to the Senate in force.

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, which means Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control. That is a steep climb on any map. But Liberty Nation News reports that its Public Square polling aggregator currently shows Republicans trailing in every race the Cook Political Report rates a toss-up, along with the one seat Cook considers most likely to flip. Ninety days out, the terrain deserves a closer look, race by race.

North Carolina

The retirement of Sen. Thom Tillis opened the seat Cook rates as the most vulnerable Republican-held prize in the country, and the matchup could not present a starker contrast. Former Gov. Roy Cooper, a fixture of North Carolina politics for four decades, faces Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman who helped engineer the 2024 victory and remains a close ally of President Trump. Liberty Nation’s aggregator puts Cooper ahead 49.3 percent to 41 percent as of Wednesday.

That gap explains the money now flooding the state. The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Majority Leader John Thune, has pledged $71 million to elect Whatley, part of a $342 million national effort, and deployed its first $17 million tranche in late July for a summer ad blitz targeting Cooper’s record on crime and his administration’s handling of Hurricane Helene.

The Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC has answered with more than $30 million committed to Cooper’s defense. Yet the number Republicans should watch is not the spread but the ceiling. Cooper is running his sixth statewide race against an opponent most voters barely know, and he still struggles to crack 50 percent. He underperformed his polling in both gubernatorial victories. A Democrat has not won a Senate seat in North Carolina since 2008, and Whatley’s task is straightforward, if not easy. He must introduce himself to a state that already knows everything about his opponent.

Alaska

Sen. Dan Sullivan’s reelection should have been a formality. Instead, it has become one of the strangest contests in the country, because there are two Dan Sullivans on the ballot. The incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan, faces former Rep. Mary Peltola, the Democrat who briefly held the state’s House seat before losing it in 2024. Then a second man, Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg, filed to run as a Republican.

The state’s elections director opened an investigation into what she called credible allegations that the challenger entered the race to confuse voters, noting his recent party switch and his ties to a consultant who has worked for Peltola, and initially concluded he could not appear on the ballot. A court ruled otherwise, and the doppelganger remains.

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This is a review of the history of an attempt to prove Jewish racial inferiority by selecting Jews who fit the racial stereotype, then murdering them, and processing the bodies for display in a German university museum. In the end, the researchers were unable to find any evidence of Jewish racial inferiority as predicted by the anthropology and medical academic community of the time.

The cost in terms of lives and suffering included over 100 innocent people who were murdered to prove a theory that turned out to be not only wrong but based on an erroneous secular philosophy, namely Darwinism. This display was one result of the rejection of the Genesis account that teaches all men are descendants of our first parents, Adam and Eve; thus all humans are of one race (the human race) and one kind (mankind).

A claim by some historians is that the Jewish Holocaust was caused purely by anti-Semitism. In fact, as has been well-documented, Darwinian-based racism was a central factor in causing the Holocaust [and was tied directly to antisemitism]. One of many examples of evidence for this fact is the extensive, detailed study of Jewish skeletons undertaken by Nazi collaborators in an attempt to scientifically prove the racial inferiority of the bodies of Jews. Exactly what the scientists were looking for is unknown, but it is clear that the skeleton collection was driven by the belief that Jews were biologically inferior humans. Some common characteristics listed supporting this ill-founded notion included especially facial traits of the nose, mouth, chin, forehead, and eye and hair color, as well as body-build. This belief in “Jewish inferiority” led to the proposal that a careful study of Jewish skeletons and body organs would provide scientific support for this view.

This goal led to selecting appropriate examples of Jews that fit the racist stereotype as outlined by various anthropology references. After the subjects were identified, they were murdered, their bodies were studied, some organ(s) removed for further study, and then all of the flesh was removed with the goal of placing their skeletons in German museums to document German racial theories.

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North Texas’ proposed EPIC City development became a focal point Wednesday in a U.S. Senate hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood’s domestic network, with one witness describing it as the “American version” of an “Islamist separatism” pattern that European governments have warned against.

Arielle F. Klepach, senior litigation counsel for the National Jewish Advocacy Center, made the comparison in written testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) chaired the hearing, titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America.”

“The American version of this pattern is EPIC City, a residential community project in North Texas, designed to be an exclusively Muslim city and branded as ‘the epicenter of Islam in America,’” Klepach wrote.

The project, now called The Meadow, would include more than 1,000 homes, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school and other facilities on roughly 402 acres in Collin and Hunt counties near Josephine.

Community Capital Partners has said the development will follow state and federal law, welcome people of all faiths and operate as a lawful residential community. The project has not broken ground.

North Texas project enters national debate

Klepach compared the development to European “mega-mosque” projects that combine religious, educational and social services.

Her testimony cited British warnings that some such projects can reduce residents’ reliance on public institutions and isolate communities from the surrounding society.

She also cited four pending Texas cases involving the project and wrote that CAIR-Texas and CAIR-DFW had defended EPIC City while CAIR national leaders had spoken at the East Plano Islamic Center.

Klepach called that an “active advocacy relationship” between CAIR and the EPIC religious community.

Her testimony did not identify the East Plano Islamic Center or Community Capital Partners as a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate.

Instead, she argued that the proposed development resembles a broader community-building pattern and cited CAIR’s advocacy as part of the comparison.

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Somewhere tonight, millions of men will say goodnight to a woman who does not exist. She never argues. She never has a headache or a bad day or a conviction that challenges his. She is endlessly available, endlessly affirming, and endlessly fake, and she is being marketed as the cure for the loneliest generation in American history.

The scale is difficult to overstate. AI companionship has become one of the largest consumer applications of artificial intelligence, and the customer base skews young. Research published in 2025 found that as many as a third of teenagers now use AI companions, while OpenAI’s own disclosures suggest nearly a million people turn to ChatGPT daily for emotional support.

An app store search for “AI companion” returns hundreds of products with names that tell you exactly what is being sold and to whom.

Here is the part that makes this story dangerous rather than merely sad. The technology works, at least at first. A Harvard Business School study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that conversations with AI companions measurably reduced loneliness in the short term, performing roughly on par with talking to an actual human being.

The counterfeit is convincing. That is precisely the problem, because a counterfeit that fails converts no one.

The long-term data tells the rest of the story. Researchers at Aalto University who tracked nearly two thousand active users of a popular companion app found that extended use correlated with rising psychological distress and gradual withdrawal from real relationships. A Stanford analysis reached similar territory, with vulnerable users faring worst. The pattern is the pattern of every addiction ever studied. Immediate relief, long-term ruin, and a subject who defends the very thing consuming him.

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President Trump is pushing his years-long  legal fight against Hillary Clinton all the way to the Supreme  Court, seeking to overturn an appeals  court ruling that rejected his conspiracy claims and hit him with nearly $1 million in sanctions.

Justice Clarence Thomas granted Trump an extension this week to file a formal petition asking the high court to take up the case. Trump now has until September 9 to submit his arguments in Trump v. Clinton, a lawsuit rooted in allegations that Clinton and others fabricated the narrative that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

The extension is a procedural step, not a ruling on the merits. Thomas handles routine administrative requests from the circuit involved, and granting extra time to file a petition carries no signal about how the full court might view the case. It takes four justices to agree to hear a petition before any case gets a full hearing.

A Senate investigative panel has obtained a copy of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci’s government-issued iPhone, potentially providing lawmakers with additional records as they continue to investigate the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Health and Human Services transferred a copy of the phone to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., reports The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

The transfer comes days after copies of Fauci’s journals were released publicly following their handover from HHS to Congress.

Johnson and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have intensified their scrutiny of Fauci in recent days, seeking more information about the government’s pandemic response and the origins of COVID-19.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Paul, voted Thursday to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after he declined to answer lawmakers’ questions during testimony last week.

Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times during the hearing and said he had testified before or briefed Congress more than 200 times during his nearly four decades leading the nation’s infectious disease institute.

During the hearing, Fauci described Paul as having an “unhinged obsession” with him.

According to a spokeswoman for Johnson, Fauci used the phone during his tenure as director of NIAID.

Fauci became a central figure in the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic in 2020, at times publicly disagreeing with President Donald Trump over the nation’s response and advocating stricter public health measures.

He remained in government during the beginning of the Biden administration before retiring in 2022.

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The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted on Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.

The resolution cleared the panel by an 8-7 margin along party lines.

Stephen A. Smith is bombastic. Colorful. Grandiose.

But he showed another side of himself on the topic of Anthony Fauci: humbled.

The ESPN commentator revealed that he got into the fight of his life during the COVID pandemic, despite following the advice of the “experts.”

“We were told, ‘Hey, you ain’t gonna get Covid if you do that.’ And I GOT COVID!” he exclaimed.

“And damn it, it almost killed me!” he continued. “Going into 2022, I’m in the hospital 90 minutes before the ball is about to drop, and the doctor says, ‘We’ve been at this for three plus weeks. You got double pneumonia. You look really bad. If this antibiotic and this steroid do not work, Mr. Smith, I’m sorry, we’re gonna have to call your family. Looks that bad…’”

“And through the grace of God, three hours later, I felt better after they gave me that steroid and that antibiotic,” he added. “But those were the longest three hours of my life because I thought it was over.”

“And I remember I had done exactly what Dr. Anthony Fauci was imploring us all to do.”

Stephen A. also excoriated Fauci over the “advice” he gave Americans during the pandemic. Here is more from his amazing rant.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as I said, the man pleaded the Fifth 111 times, but they got a hold of his diary. And when you talk about self-aggrandizement being taken to a new level, definitely he was guilty of at least that.

“We learned that mask [mandates], six feet distancing… These were not scientific decisions being made. This was made by a man whose ego was just larger than life — talking about people calling him the sexiest man alive, fawning over celebrities and them fawning over him, caught up in the celebration and everything else in between. It was embarrassing.

“And it was embarrassing not only to him, but it was embarrassing to us who took his word as gospel and ignored all the cynicism and the criticism that was coming his way. We sat back and we bought his stuff, hook, line, and sinker. He was the face of science.

“I cover sports for a living. And over the national airwaves, I had to go on the air. I felt compelled to go on the airwaves and apologize to the likes of NBA star Kyrie Irving or an NFL star like Aaron Rodgers because of the scrutiny they received, the assist that I provided in aiming that scrutiny or assisting in that scrutiny coming in their direction — because the face of science was telling us this is not wise, this is not what’s supposed to be happening.

“And the level of dominion and control that he was having over the lives of American citizens… I’m just going to say it over the airwaves of SiriusXM: It was almost like it gave him a damn hard-on. That’s right. I said it. That’s how bad it was.

“When you read his diaries or what the Senate revealed, led by Senator Rand Paul, who was on the air with me just a few days ago explaining in detail some of those things that transpired — this is shameful. It’s shameful.

“And if you think people are going to forget that Dr. Anthony Fauci did what he did on Capitol Hill last week during the hearing… particularly when tomorrow that same committee is expected to announce they are indicting Anthony Fauci for essentially misleading the public because they got a lot of questions about some of the decisions he’s made…

“I’m not saying you need to go that far. I’m not saying they’re completely right about that. I don’t believe this man at 85 years of age who’s done tremendous work spanning decades should be thrown in jail. But do I think that he should be embarrassed for the self-aggrandizement that he engaged in? You damn right I do.

“Because some of the things that he was telling us to do was inconsistent with science. But he was telling us it was science that led to him making the decisions that he made.

“Masking. Six feet distancing. The closing of businesses. Forcing businesses to push those mandates upon people like me and others.”

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A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the federal government can no longer enforce key registration requirements for firearm suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns against plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by Kansas and 14 other states.

The court found the regulations unconstitutional after Congress eliminated the underlying tax that supported them.

U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the Northern District of Texas ruled Wednesday that provisions of the National Firearms Act requiring registration, reporting, and recordkeeping for those firearms and accessories exceed Congress’ constitutional authority.

The requirements continued despite passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which reduced the NFA’s transfer and manufacturing tax on suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and certain other firearms to $0 beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

The court permanently barred the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives from enforcing those requirements against the states, organizations, businesses, and individuals who sued.

However, the judge declined to issue a nationwide injunction, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. CASA, which limits universal injunctions to nonparties.

“The challenged NFA provisions are unconstitutional,” Hendrix wrote, concluding that once Congress eliminated the transfer and making taxes for the affected firearms, “the regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under the taxing power” because they no longer generate revenue.

The judge also rejected the Justice Department’s argument that the regulations could instead be justified under Congress’ commerce clause authority, finding Congress enacted the law solely under its taxing power.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach hailed the ruling as a landmark victory for Second Amendment advocates.

“Today, the state of Kansas and our fellow plaintiffs won a great victory against the U.S. Department of Justice, which had been wrongly defending an unconstitutional law. The federal government has no right to demand that American citizens ask for permission before putting an accessory on their firearm to protect their hearing,” Kobach said.

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The County Council was informed by Director of Administration Bunky Luffman late Friday afternoon, September 8th, that the Administration has reversed its action on Ms. Heather Lankford serving in the capacity as the “Acting Deputy Director of Public Works”.

Ms. Lankford was one of two individuals whose appointments had been rejected by the Wicomico County Council within the past several months.

Mr. Luffman reported that Ms. Lankford has been placed in the “Manager Engineer” position within the Department of Public Works and that he will be overseeing the Department until the County is able to hire a new Director. No further explanation was given for the restructuring of Ms. Lankford’s role in Public Works.

Ms. Lankford originally served as the Acting Director of Public Works for a period of 90 days as allowed by the County Charter. However, following the 90-day probationary period as Acting Director of Public Works, the County Executive unilaterally appointed Ms. Heather Lankford in the unauthorized capacity as Acting Deputy Director of Public Works on May 17, 2023. The County Charter does not recognize, nor provide for any such position as Acting Deputy Director.

The Wicomico County Council looks forward to continuing to rectify these outstanding hiring discrepancies as to avoid the unnecessary and costly measures associated with any further threats of litigation.

The Justice Department is taking a Maryland county to court after it passed a law festooning the county with gun-free zones where weapons are not allowed.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn Montgomery County’s gun control edict, according to a Justice Department news release.

The Justice Department said Bill 23-26 “violates the Second Amendment by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from possessing firearms in daily life.”

The bill makes it illegal to carry a gun within 100 yards of a wide variety of locations “even if the person carrying a firearm is duly licensed and has the express consent of the property owner,” the release said.

“The Second Amendment does not allow local governments to ban law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms in public places as they go about their daily lives,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said.

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A Citadel cadet and South Carolina Army National Guard member and his childhood best friend were gunned down in a vacant Florida lot by a 17-year-old killer last week.

Citadel cadet Dustin Rose and his childhood friend Samson Campbell were fatally shot in DeLand, Florida, last Wednesday night.

Samson Campbell came home to DeLand to mourn his family’s dog who recently died. Dustin Rose joined Campbell to spread the dog’s ashes.

The two young men were fatally shot at an industrial park and their bodies were found at 10:40 pm.

The suspect, 17-year-old Keyan Rundell was on the loose for a week before he was taken into custody on Wednesday.

Rundell has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder.

Investigators are still trying to determine a motive.

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Democrat voters in Michigan are jumping ship in droves after radical progressive Abdul El-Sayed narrowly clinched the Democratic Senate nomination Tuesday night.

Even loyal MS NOW viewers and self-described liberals are openly declaring they will not vote for the socialist-backed candidate and will instead support Republican Mike Rogers in November.

MS NOW host Chris Jansing herself reported the stunning defection:

“And I want to tell you really quickly, as I was getting on the plane this morning, A guy who was a big fan of MSNOW said to me, ‘I’m anxious to see who wins… I voted for Haley Stevens … because of Israel. And I don’t like the position that Abdullah Al-Sayed has on Israel. And in fact, if he wins, I will be voting for Mike Rogers.’”

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Spanish mackerel are becoming more common in the lower Chesapeake Bay this week near the mouth of the Potomac River and along channel edges.

Vacationing anglers at Deep Creek Lake are finding a mix of largemouth and smallmouth bass along shoreline structure and rocky points during the early morning and late evening hours.

The August striped bass closure offers anglers the opportunity to focus their fishing efforts on blue catfish that can be found throughout the region’s tidal rivers.

Read more about the week ahead!

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Today, Governor Moore signed HB 2100, ensuring elections remain in Marylanders’ hands by placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot that, if ratified by voters, would clarify the state’s redistricting process.

“For over a year, I have warned that Donald Trump and Republicans across the country are working to rig the system, weaken voting rights, and make this pain permanent. I am proud that today we united and  took action,” said Gov. Moore. “I continue to believe that our country needs national redistricting reform. But until that happens, inaction is not an option. Maryland will not be caught flat-footed while Republicans engage in political redlining that guts decades of progress that the generations before us fought for.By passing this constitutional amendment, the General Assembly has ensured that Maryland remains committed to being part of that conversation—and that the final decision will rest where it belongs: with the people of Maryland. I look forward to working together to pass the amendment with a strong YES vote in November.”

The Maryland House and Senate passed HB 2100 during a special session which outlines language for the ballot question presented to Maryland voters at the November 2026 general election and, if ratified by voters, clarifies that redistricting standards for legislative districts do not apply to congressional standards, and that the Maryland Constitution does not mandate those same criteria for congressional districts.

During the last session, the governor repeatedly called for action and reconstituted the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission. The bipartisan commission solicited public feedback, held statewide hearings, and recommended a fair congressional map. Following the commission’s work, the governor advocated for their proposals testifying before the General Assembly in this year’s regular session that Maryland must do its part to ensure the state’s representative maps reflect the will of the people.

The gangbanging son of a Westchester County police bigwig had a Bronx court date just minutes before he allegedly opened fire on a rival – with his cop mom and ex-con dad as getaway drivers, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Chase Lackard, 20, faced a judge on a 2024 gun rap just 20 minutes before the alleged June 29 drive-by gang shooting – with help from his mom, disgraced Mount Vernon Deputy Police Commissioner Jennifer Lackard, and drug-dealing dad James Lackard, according to prosecutors.

“He’s captured on cameras running into this courthouse,” Bronx Assistant District Attorney Keturah Ladd told the judge. “He had a court date and a court appearance on the third floor of this building.”

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he Maryland Jockey Club and NBC Sports Extend Media Rights Partnership 

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Governor Moore today announced a new schedule for the Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness Stakes races. This announcement follows the state’s final acquisition of the Intellectual Property (IP) Rights to the Preakness Stakes and Black Eyed Susan from 1/ST Racing, ensuring that the race will call Baltimore and Maryland home well into the future, ensuring the State remains in firm control of Maryland’s multi-billion dollar equine industry.

During today’s press event, the Maryland Jockey Club and NBC Sports also announced a multi-year extension of their partnership to present the Preakness Stakes through 2032.

Today’s news included several innovative programming changes:

• Beginning in 2027, the Preakness Stakes will move one week later on the calendar, to be contested three weeks after the Kentucky Derby.
• Also beginning next year with the 152nd Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of the Triple Crown moves to Sundays in the late afternoon/early evening on NBC and Peacock, marking the first time the race – contested since 1873 – will take place on Sunday.
• With the Preakness moving to Sunday, the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes will receive additional weekend exposure, as it will be showcased on Saturday in the late afternoon/early evening on NBC and Peacock.

The media extension includes multiplatform rights to the Preakness Stakes, Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, and extensive Preakness weekend programming, which will be presented on NBC, Peacock, and NBCSN.

The continuation of the NBC Sports-Maryland Jockey Club relationship – which began in 2001 – will make NBC the longest running home of the Preakness Stakes, as NBCUniversal will become the first media company to present the middle jewel of the Triple Crown for three decades.

“The state of Maryland and Preakness are stepping into an exciting new era; and I am delighted that the Maryland Jockey Club has renewed its media partnership with NBC and Peacock,” said Gov. Moore. “The continuation of our partnership and the new schedule ensures optimal and accessible coverage for everyone from horseracing experts to casual fans, as our administration makes historic investments to leverage the iconic race as a cornerstone of Maryland’s history, culture and economy.”

“Preakness Weekend is more than a race—it is a celebration of more than 150 years of Maryland history, Baltimore, our proud equine tradition, and the communities that make this event so special,” said First Lady Dawn Moore. “This new schedule honors that extraordinary legacy while opening an exciting new chapter—elevating the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, bringing even more attention to Maryland on the national stage, and creating new opportunities for local businesses, families, and racing fans.”

“We look forward to seeing the Preakness continue to evolve in this next chapter,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “As a son of Park Heights, I’m proud of the progress we’re making to ensure that this is an event held with the community, not just in the community—especially as announcements like this one bring new energy and tourism to the race.”

“The Maryland Jockey Club is thrilled to continue its long-standing partnership with NBC Sports for the Preakness Stakes. We believe that moving the Preakness to the fourth Sunday in May and showcasing the excellent Black-Eyed Susan Stakes card on Saturday will transform the weekend for horsemen, bettors, and racing fans alike,” said The Maryland Jockey Club President and General Manager Bill Knauf. “Governor Moore and the State of Maryland have committed significant resources to racing’s future, including a rebuilt Pimlico on the horizon, a state-of-the-art training center at Laurel Park, the acquisition of the Preakness Stakes Intellectual Property, and a fresh path forward for Maryland’s iconic racing event. Preakness Weekend 2027 marks a new era for the State of Maryland, City of Baltimore, our valued partners in the Park Heights Community, and all the horsemen who have worked diligently to preserve and enhance horse racing in Maryland.”

“Today’s agreement with NBC Sports is another important milestone in realizing the full potential of the Preakness,” said Mark Anthony Thomas, President and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee. “It reinforces that Maryland made the right investment by taking ownership of one of our state’s defining economic and cultural assets. The Preakness supports more than 28,000 jobs, strengthens tourism and hospitality, showcases Maryland’s horse industry, and brings our state to audiences around the world. GBC has been a leading voice in support of this decision, and we remain committed to helping grow the Preakness into one of America’s premier annual sporting and cultural events.”

“The Preakness has been part of Baltimore’s identity for more than 150 years, and this new agreement positions it to remain an economic and cultural anchor for generations to come,” said Dr. Mohan Suntha, Chair of the Greater Baltimore Committee. “With a reimagined Pimlico, expanded national exposure, and a new schedule designed to grow the entire weekend, we have an extraordinary opportunity to bring more visitors, investment, and energy to Baltimore while building an exciting future worthy of this iconic tradition.”

Two parents in New York state who pleaded guilty to starving their baby to death will receive no jail time after a guilty plea to second-degree manslaughter.

All thanks to a Democrat judge. What a surprise.

Court documents reveal that Londyn Gonzalez, a two-and-a-half month old baby, was found dead at an apartment in Cheektowaga, New York, after paramedics responded to a call for an unresponsive child on July 7, 2023, according to The Post Millennial.

While the baby was born at a healthy weight on April 20 of that year, during follow-up appointments, a medical provider said she was concerned about the baby’s inability to gain weight and told the parents to increase the amount of formula she was receiving.

While she was 6 pounds, 8 ounces at birth, she was only 8 pounds, 4 ounces at the time of her death.

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For years, we Americans were told that the FBI’s “Russia collusion” investigation into Donald Trump was a sober, apolitical response to what appeared to be a grave breach of national security

A Tuesday morning document release by the White House blows the whole charade to smithereens once and for all.

We know all about former FBI director James “86 47” Comey and his sham Crossfire Hurricane investigation into supposed collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Former President Barack Obama had his fingerprints all over that politically-motivated witch hunt.

We’re now learning that Crossfire Hurricane was extended into something called “Oxferd Comma” after Comey was fired by Trump on May 9, 2017. Oxferd Comma was eventually transferred to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, which was shut down after it was determined the investigation had no merit.

Journalist John Solomon, who serves as the chairman of the White House Government Transparency Task Force, was the first to announce that a treasure trove of Oxferd Comma documents had been declassified and released by the Trump White House: “This morning, the White House Government Transparency Task Force released newly declassified documents exposing an FBI criminal investigation code-named Oxferd Comma. The documents can be downloaded here.”

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It remains to be seen whether or not Tuesday was good or bad for the cadre of Democrats who seem to, very mysteriously, have an animus toward the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and virtually no other lobbying group that encourages better U.S. ties with foreign powers.

However, we can say one thing for certain: It wasn’t a great night for grifting bodyguards with odd attachments, financial and romantic, to former members of the so-called “Squad.”

In a comeback attempt that was widely seen as a barometer of just how far the anti-AIPAC backlash would go in the Democratic Party, ex-Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri was defeated soundly in her attempt to reclaim her old congressional seat.

With 99 percent of the votes counted as of Wednesday morning, incumbent Rep. Wesley Bell had 59.2 percent of the vote to Bush’s 36.9 percent. The race had been called by the Associated Press on Tuesday night.

Given that the St. Louis-area district leans heavily Democratic, this all but assures him of a second term.

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Republicans hope to flip Virginia seat held by Rep Eugene Vindman, whose brother testified in first impeachment trial

Douglas Ollivant decisively beat two fellow political newcomers in the Republican primary contest to take on incumbent Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., in November.

Vindman, whose twin brother is a high-profile foe of President Donald Trump, currently represents Virginia’s 7th Congressional district, a seat previously held by the state’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

The Republican primary race between Ollivant, Rick Smithers and Philip Harding was unique in that none of the candidates had held elected office before, though two have government experience. The lack of reliable polling made it difficult to foretell who would emerge triumphant — but Ollivant ran away with victory, earning 56.6% of the vote compared to Harding’s 30.7% and Smithers’ 12.8%.

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What a nightmare.

China’s economy was praised as the model for the Western world. Then, a few years back, it began to turn sour.  President Trump’s first administration did a number on China, which is why they wanted him gone.  This alone may be why China was involved in the COVID outbreak in 2019-20 (as reported in the book, The Steal – Volume I: Setting the Stage).

In 2023, the world began to see China’s economy falter.  We reported on a report at the Business Insider.

It’s been clear for years that the Chinese real-estate market has been in trouble. China has a population of 1.4 billion, but it has built housing for a population of 3 billion, according to expert estimates. Many of the mega-developments became empty monuments to Beijing’s insatiable desire for growth. In Shenyang, farmers have taken over a development of empty mansions for cattle grazing.

At that time, real estate giant Evergrand began reporting problems, and it finally dissolved a few years ago.

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There is no honor for the psychopath in the laboratory coat.

Dr. Tony Fauci’s greatest lie should land him with life in prison or the electric chair.

Two weeks ago US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, recently released diary entries, Tony’s Diary Package, from former White House COVID advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The release shows Fauci’s bizarre obsession with fame and also indicates he believed the COVID death rate was far lower than what he told lawmakers while under oath.

SALISBURY, Md. — Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano is pleased to announce that Zaxby’s, one of the nation’s fastest-growing quick-service restaurant chains specializing in hand-breaded chicken fingers, chicken sandwiches, fresh salads, and its signature assortment of dipping sauces, will soon be coming to Wicomico County.

The new restaurant will be located along U.S. Route 13, just before entering the municipal limits of the City of Fruitland, providing residents and travelers with another exciting dining option along one of the county’s busiest commercial corridors.

Founded in Georgia in 1990, Zaxby’s has grown to hundreds of locations across the United States and has earned a loyal following for its made-to-order chicken meals, Zalads®, wings, sandwiches, and family-friendly atmosphere.

“This is another great win for Wicomico County and our residents,” said County Executive Julie Giordano. “The addition of Zaxby’s demonstrates that national brands recognize the strength of our local economy and the tremendous growth opportunities available here. Every new business investment creates jobs, expands consumer choice, and strengthens our tax base. We are excited to welcome Zaxby’s to Wicomico County.”

The announcement also highlights the success of Wicomico County’s proactive economic development efforts. Earlier this year, County Executive Giordano joined Salisbury-Wicomico Economic Development (SWED) organization and other members of the County at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) convention, where they met directly with numerous national retailers and restaurant brands interested in expanding into new markets.

Zaxby’s was among the companies visited by the County’s delegation during the ICSC conference. The County continues to build relationships with site selectors, developers, and national retailers to attract additional businesses and create new opportunities for residents.

“Wicomico County is open for business,” Giordano added. “Our administration remains committed to creating an environment where businesses can succeed, invest, and grow. We look forward to welcoming Zaxby’s and continuing to bring new employers, restaurants, and retail opportunities to our community.”

Additional information regarding construction timelines and an anticipated opening date will be announced as it becomes available.