Kevin Reddington did not wait long. Four days after a Plymouth jury deadlocked on whether Lindsay Clancy should answer for strangling her three children, her lawyer went on Good Morning America and asked the President of the United States to wipe the slate clean.

I’d like to say that perhaps Donald Trump, who felt compelled to speak out about this case. Mr President, I hope that you would consider this young lady, the type of person she is, what’s been through, and consider a pardon.

That is not a legal argument. That is a publicity stunt dressed as humility. And it treats three dead children as a footnote to a lawyer’s affection for his client. It also gets Reddington the additional headlines he seems to crave, keeping himself in the news with an ask he knows won’t work.

Students at Georgetown University are planning a Charlie Kirk lookalike contest on the anniversary of his assassination, proving once again that the left has no sense of decency whatsover.

It’s not enough for them that a leftist shot and killed Charlie Kirk, they have to keep running up and kicking his dead corpse.

These are the same people who claim to be against hate.

FOX News reports:

Students at Georgetown University are allegedly planning a Charlie Kirk “lookalike contest” for the anniversary of the conservative activist’s assassination, with the event drawing thousands of upvotes at the elite Washington, D.C., campus, according to screenshots shared with Fox News Digital from the school’s Turning Point USA chapter.

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Just when you think that things can’t get any crazier, somehow they do. We live at a time when the thin veneer of civilization that we all once took for granted is rapidly disintegrating all around us. Some people still behave rationally, but a lot of people don’t. Decades ago, the lunatics were an extremely small minority on the fringes of society, but today there are countless lunatics that are actually in positions of power. Just look at some of the mayors that our major cities have been electing recently. What we are witnessing would be funny if it was the plot of a Hollywood comedy, but since it is real life that we are talking about what we are witnessing is extremely tragic. What is considered to be “normal” is being turned upside down in hundreds of different ways, and our entire society is descending into a state of constant chaos.

When I was growing up, there is no way that Lindsay Clancy would have been considered a national hero by millions of Americans.

In those days, they would have locked her up and thrown away the key.

But in 2026, killing her three children has made her an instant celebrity.

Just a few hours ago, her lawyer went on Good Morning America and suggested that President Trump should pardon her…

Lindsay Clancy’s outspoken lawyer, Kevin Reddington, directly appealed to President Trump early Tuesday to pardon the killer mom.

“Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady – the type of person she is and what she’s been through – and consider a pardon,” he told “Good Morning America” when asked what was next for Clancy after her high-profile case ended in a mistrial Friday.

The veteran 75-year-old lawyer made no mention of how he expected Trump to get involved, given that Clancy is only facing state charges, which presidents have no power to pardon. He also did not say if he hoped such unprecedented intervention would stop a second trial or save the killer if she were convicted.

Are you kidding me?

When I saw the footage of this interview, I was absolutely flabbergasted.

What would cause him to believe that President Trump would ever do such a thing?

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The U.S. Marshals Service said Tuesday that 79 children who had been reported missing or endangered were recovered during an operation in Ohio.

The dozens of children, between the ages of 6 and 17, had been reported missing or endangered in recent years, according to a U.S. Marshals statement, which described the action as the “largest missing child operation” in Ohio state history. Some children were located as far away as Georgia, it added.

Officials said that Operation Meridian was carried out throughout the month of August and that the children had been reported missing under a number of different circumstances, including neglect, runaway cases, physical abuse, sex trafficking, and other types of endangerment.

The operation was carried out across multiple state jurisdictions with local and state agencies, authorities said.

“Using the same resources and methods we have the ability to seek and recover missing and endangered children,” U.S. Marshal Michael Black said in a statement. “We are proud to be able to assist our law enforcement partners in locating and reuniting missing children with their families.”

Providing an example, officials in southern Ohio found 13-year-old and 16-year-old sisters, finding the 13-year-old “concealed in a basement crawlspace hidden in the floor of a bedroom closet at a home” in Lockbourne. The mother of the two girls was arrested on an outstanding warrant for a probation violation, the U.S. Marshals added.

Authorities obtained more information about the 16-year-old girl, who was found later that day in Columbus, the statement said.

Amanda Berry, an Ohio woman who was held captive for years in a Cleveland home alongside two other captive women before she escaped in 2013, spoke to the U.S. Marshals officials before their operation.

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A quiet California condominium community has been rocked by an extraordinary $49,000 special assessment, leaving residents scrambling to understand why they are suddenly facing such a huge bill.

Stephen Wang, who owns a condominium in the 499-unit Torrance complex, said he was stunned when he learned about the charge, which is being levied on owners to help cover a series of major repairs and upgrades.

‘I was shocked, as most of the residents here are,’ Wang told ABC7.

The work includes rebuilding the property’s podium, re-piping the complex and repairing its elevators.

‘The HOA decided to redo the whole podium, the entire podium, and that became a $13 million project, and plus the re-piping and the elevators, so it came up to $19 million,’ Wang said.

The homeowners’ association is requiring owners to contribute toward the major projects through the special assessment, on top of their regular HOA costs.

The sheer size of the bill has highlighted the growing financial pressures facing condominium owners across California, where aging buildings, expensive insurance and increasingly stringent safety requirements can leave associations facing multimillion-dollar repair bills.

The Torrance homeowners have now filed a lawsuit and are also working to recall the HOA board.

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Iranian Missiles Raining Down on US Bases in Jordan: Reports

State Tasnim reports: Iran has launched missiles at targets in response to US strikes, while unofficial sources cited by Tasnim noted that explosions were heard in Jordan following Iranian missile attacks.

The below brief recap shows this new flare-up and tit-for-tat came in rapid succession… Senior US officials to FOX:

US military has struck targets near Kharg Island and Jask. The targets include Iranian oil tankers. This is part of a larger effort to squeeze Iran economically. The strategy includes sinking and disabling Iranian crude oil tankers. –FOX

How many Patriot interceptor missiles are being plowed through this time?

More unverified but widely circulating images out of the region overnight:

Iranian leaders have lately vowed to hit US bases and assets harder in all forthcoming rounds of fighting…

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Parents are giving American schools a big, fat F, according to a new survey — with a record low number of people saying they’re satisfied with the quality of education.

Just 32% of adults surveyed by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation said they are “completely” or even “somewhat” satisfied with the US education system this year.

That’s the worst satisfaction schools have received in the 27 years of the survey.

Those dreadful marks also reflect a staggering 11-point drop in satisfaction in just two years, with 43% of US adults saying they were satisfied with the school system in 2024.

An accused shooter tied to Monday’s West Indian Day Parade violence had been out on bail at the time — because a lefty judge ignored prosecutors’ pleas to lock him up over an attempted-slay rap just a month ago.

Nayshawn Wilkinson, 19, was hauled out of the 77th Precinct in Brooklyn on Tuesday — wearing a shirt with the Nike slogan “JUST DO IT” on it — to head to court to face the new attempted-murder charges.

Wilkinson was already supposed to have been in court Tuesday for a hearing on his alleged prior attempted-murder shooting, in which a 15-year-old boy was struck by a bullet in front of a playground in July.

But even if Wilkinson had planned to show up for that hearing, he couldn’t — because he was busted again for the latest violence.

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to endorse the Equal Earth map projection over the centuries-old Mercator map, and the United States was the only nation on the planet to vote no.

The vote, which took place Friday, pitted 164 member states in favor against a single dissent from Washington, while six countries, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine, abstained. The resolution, led by Togo and the African Union’s “Correct the Map” campaign, encourages governments, schools, and technology companies to adopt map projections that display Africa and other equatorial regions at their true relative sizes rather than the shrunken versions produced by the Mercator projection, which has dominated classrooms and atlases since the 16th century.

The resolution does not ban the Mercator map. But it establishes the U.N.’s official preference for equal-area alternatives, and the Trump administration made clear it wanted no part of it.

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The Wall Street Journal is out with an explosive new report on Corey Lewandowski’s tenure at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), alleging that the one-time adviser to President Trump wielded far more authority than he should have considering his title. And he may have used his position there to enrich himself.

Lewandowski was an unpaid “special government employee” at DHS from roughly April of 2025 until March 2026, theoretically serving as an adviser to then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, with whom he has been rumored to have a romantic relationship.

According to this new story, however, officials inside DHS saw him more as a “shadow secretary” than an unpaid volunteer. He reportedly had great influence over matters like personnel decisions and immigration policy, with control over billions of dollars in federal spending. All of this despite never having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

One of the more serious allegations made in the Journal story involved Lewandowski approaching senior officials from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and offering to work for them privately, even suggesting that he could help secure visas.

Hire me on the side, the longtime Trump aide who was effectively the shadow secretary at the department last year, told them, according to people familiar with his pitch. He said he could help the tiny, wealthy Gulf state[s] with any issues that fell under the department’s purview, such as visas, the people said.

Both countries declined, but, if true, these episodes strongly suggest that Lewandowski was trying to personally profit from his access to government services.

The alleged moneymaking efforts, which appeared to be offers by Lewandowski to sell government services for personal gain, came while he had an expansive portfolio at one of the most powerful agencies in the federal government. The role gave him de facto decision-making authority over large amounts of recently appropriated billions of dollars, the president’s border and immigration enforcement agenda and the collection of tariffs, which have been vastly expanded under President Trump.

The Journal story also raises serious questions about Lewandowski’s involvement in negotiations with Palantir over a multi-billion dollar contract, a long-running beef he had with immigration contractor GEO Group after it declined to hire him as a lobbyist, and ties to a $2.3 million FEMA grant awarded to a small conservative nonprofit outside the usual process.

The Justice Department has very strict ethics rules governing how special government employees should conduct themselves: “Generally, you should not engage in outside activities, including employment, that conflict with your official duties. An activity conflicts with your duties if it would require you to disqualify yourself from matters so critical that your ability to perform your duties would be impaired.”

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Just how deep does the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have its fangs sunk into the United States government? New indications seem to surface every day, and some of them go much deeper than an inept and dimwitted former California congressman’s choices of sleeping partners.

The latest revelation, in a story broken at the Daily Caller, involves the outgoing Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his wife, Elaine Chao. The Daily Caller story claims that Elaine Chao, whose original name is Zhao Xiaolan, allegedly held positions with Chinese government entities and organizations tied to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front apparatus while also serving in senior U.S. government posts.

That’s a shocker by any standard.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials appointed Sen. Mitch McConnell’s wife to multiple government positions, many of which partially overlapped with her two U.S. Cabinet posts, according to Chinese government and state media reports unearthed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Elaine Chao, who married the Kentucky Republican in 1993, has held numerous U.S. government positions since the 1980s, including serving as Department of Labor (DOL) secretary throughout President George W. Bush’s tenure and as Department of Transportation (DOT) secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term. After resigning from the Trump administration in January 2021, Chao then served on the board of EV charging company ChargePoint between 2021 and 2026, and is now listed as a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

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It seems like scarcely a day goes by without us learning about a new welfare fraud ring being busted. In a way, that’s disheartening, because there seem to be so many of these rings operating. On the other hand, it’s encouraging, because they are being caught and arrested.

The latest such case comes to us from Massachusetts, where a big Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit fraud ring was busted, and guess what, most of the accused were illegal aliens, but living comfortably in that sanctuary state.

Now, though, they are in much less comfortable surroundings. The Department of Agriculture oversees the SNAP program, and Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins, on Tuesday, took to her official X account to break the news.

Secretary Rollins writes:

Nine individuals charged. Nearly $1 MILLION in alleged benefit fraud.

Among them: Mercedes Soto Capellan, a Dominican national unlawfully residing in Massachusetts, who allegedly used a stolen identity to obtain approximately $65,521 in SNAP and MassHealth benefits.

Some defendants allegedly lived under stolen identities for decades… all while collecting taxpayer-funded benefits.

Under President Trump, if you steal from programs meant for vulnerable Americans, we will find you. And we will hold you accountable.

The Iceland government is red-hot after President Trump posted an AI-generated image depicting the island country — as well as all of North America, Central America and the Caribbean — under Washington’s rule.

“There is nothing funny or normal about making fun of the sovereignty of states,” Iceland’s Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Gunnarsdottir told reporters Tuesday. “If this is supposed to be a joke, then it is a bad joke.”

Gunnarsdottir further blasted the Monday morning post — which labeled the US, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Mexico as part of the “United States of America” — as insulting and “absurd.”

President Trump posted a map of the US controlling all of North America.

Iceland’s public broadcaster RUV reported that Gunnarsdottir had summoned recently confirmed US Ambassador Billy Long, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs telling the outlet that “it was made clear at the meeting that the post was entirely inappropriate.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected new claims that he was directly warned that Hamas was planning a major operation before the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, according to a new book.

UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed allegedly spoke to Netanyahu 10 days before the attack, warning the ally state that terror mastermind Yahya Sinwar was planning an operation, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported, citing the book.

Netanyahu’s office slammed the claims, made in a book authored by Israeli journalists, as an “absolute lie,” adding that such a phone call never happened.

The allegations come just weeks before Israel is set to hold its national elections, with Netanyahu facing increased pressure over the wars in Gaza and Iran.

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Earlier this month, numerous media reports covered a performance audit detailing Maryland’s lack of success to date in addressing Medicaid fraud, which state officials said has resulted in tens of millions of dollars in improper Medicaid payments.

The latest unwelcome news comes from the findings of the nonpartisan, independent Office of Legislative Audits on the performance of the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA).

These findings are much worse than those reported in the Medicaid fraud audit.

The MDTA audit results include:

• MDTA failed to collect unpaid E-ZPass tolls and penalty fees totaling more than $885 million.

• Nearly $669 million in tolls and fees went uncollected for a year or more.

• More than half of that amount, $386.3 million, had gone uncollected for more than three years.

• MDTA has not taken timely steps to pursue and collect unpaid E-ZPass tolls and penalties from out-of-state motorists.

• As of February 2026, MDTA had not executed any reciprocity agreements with other states, as allowed by state law. Such agreements could include provisions allowing those states to suspend vehicle registrations if tolls and penalties are not paid.

• Earlier this year, the Maryland Department of Legislative Services (DLS) reported that MDTA had failed to collect more than $730 million in tolls and penalties assessed against out-of-state drivers.

• The DLS report also identified more than $907 million in unpaid tolls and fees on vehicles registered in Maryland.

• MDTA has not sent those accounts to collections or taken steps for the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) to suspend registrations and prevent drivers from renewing their Maryland vehicle registrations because of unpaid tolls and penalties.

• MDTA did not hire collection agencies to help recover unpaid tolls and fees.

• MDTA did not request approval from the state budget secretary to send the accounts to the state’s Central Collection Unit.

• The recent OLA audit comes two years after state lawmakers raised concerns about unpaid out-of-state tolls and penalties.

• In January 2025, MDTA said it believed it was close to entering into its first reciprocal payment and penalty agreement with other states. The pact was expected to include the ability to suspend out-of-state vehicle registrations for unpaid tolls. In July 2026, the agency said it was still working to finalize that agreement.

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A 70-year-old Lincoln County, Missouri foster mother who shipped a teenage girl in her care across state lines, in a scheme witnesses said was tied to a monkey, will spend exactly zero days in a Missouri prison for the felony she just admitted.

Brenda Deutsch, 71, of Winfield, pleaded guilty to first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, a Class D felony, after an adopted teenage girl in her care was shipped off to a filthy Texas residence that Deutsch had allegedly never inspected, FOX 2 Now reported.

On Thursday, Lincoln County Judge Thomas J. Frawley sentenced Deutsch to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, but then suspended the execution of that sentence and placed her on three years of supervised probation.

In other words, Deutsch will remain out of prison unless she violates the terms of her probation.

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BioNTech has terminated a Phase 2 trial of its experimental mRNA cancer shot autogene cevumeran (BNT122) after an independent monitoring board found an imbalance in overall survival, with development partner Genentech confirming there were “more deaths in the vaccine arm.”

BioNTech co-developed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine sold as Comirnaty.

The cancer jab termination came about 10 months after the trial had already crossed a prespecified futility boundary but was allowed to continue.

Public European trial records show that new patients continued to be recruited for roughly six months after the futility boundary was crossed, with recruitment continuing in Germany until April 28, 2026.

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In 2025, just 51% of firms with 10 to 24 employees offered health benefits, while 97% of firms with at least 200 workers did so, according to KFF. Rising health costs may leave Main Street business owners facing increased difficulty attracting new employees and making key investments, experts warned the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Sky-high and rapidly escalating health plan costs are a major problem for small businesses, which often run on razor-thin margins,” Job Creators Network Foundation president Elaine Parker told the DCNF. “These expenditures prevent small businesses from making productive investments in expansion, equipment, or personnel, reducing Main Street dynamism. As a result, more and more have no other choice but to drop health coverage entirely.”

“Policymakers must allow small businesses to group together in association health plans to negotiate better rates for care, share risk, and avoid costly Obamacare regulations,” Parker added. “[Association health plans (AHPs)] also offer more flexibility and choice, and they streamline expensive administrative functions. These savings would significantly reduce health plan costs for small businesses and their employees.”

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President Donald Trump just laid the blueprint on how to defeat and reorganize a brutal communist regime in less than a year by removing the tyrant and investing in that country’s vast natural resources.

The Joys of Socialist-Communism

Not long ago Venezuela boasted of having the highest living standards in Latin America and attracted large-scale European and Latin American immigration. By 1970 it was the richest country in the region and ranked among the world’s 20 richest by some GDP-per-capita measures, ahead of Spain, Greece, and Israel.

That all ended when Hugo Chavez, the former tyrant, brought his communist-socialism to the country and destroyed the country. By 2016 73% of Venezuelans reported losing around 19 pounds per individual. By 2017 64% of Venezuelans reported losing 24 pounds per individual.

Then President Trump rescued the people and removed their tyran Nicolas Maduro.

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Most are calling Zohran Mamdani’s actions at a 9/11 ceremony a “snafu” or a meaningless gesture with no significance. They clearly do not understand Islam or the process of military, cultural, and political jihad.

He did not drop the souvenir. He did not get confused about the guest list. New York City’s Mayor signed a pair of September 11 executive orders at City Hall on Friday, then whispered to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, “Can you pass this?”

Tisch handed the ceremonial pen to chief counsel Ramzi Kassem. Kassem, who had slipped into the Blue Room late, took it with a smirk and left almost as fast as he arrived.

That is not a clerical accident. That is a staged insult to the dead, delivered one week before the 25th anniversary of the massacre that tore this city open. More importantly, it’s a declaration of conquest, less than 25-years since the attacks, as a “secret” Islamist camouflaged by Marxism now runs the very city they hit hardest.

Fox News and the New York Post both documented the handoff. City Hall’s excuse only makes it worse. Officials told the Post that Kassem and his team drafted both orders as part of his job. So the man who wrote the city’s official remembrance paper was also the man chosen to keep the relic. The police commissioner was reduced to a courier.

The victims were reduced to a backdrop.

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After its historic victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has dropped from 44.4 % of the vote to 43.8% after mail-in ballots were counted, with all other parties gaining abnormally from mail-in ballots. Attorney Dirk Schmitz called this a sign of “systematic manipulation”.

German elections have been thought to be fairly secure, with mainly in-person same-day voting, photo ID requirements, and a Supreme Court ban on digital voting machines, as I explained to Ben Harnwell on The War Room.

However, Saxony-Anhalt saw a boom in mail-in ballots, making up one-quarter of all votes cast.

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The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced six nuclear-industry bills on September 2nd, all without a single opposing vote. The measures target fuel recycling, uranium enrichment, licensing delays, regulatory staffing and transparency.

The vote to get it to the House floor is another testament to the lack of divide among the Republicans and Democrats regarding the need for more nuclear energy in America.

As we highlighted in a report from Goldman, the Western nuclear revival is gathering momentum across microreactors, small modular reactors and larger designs. But turning announcements into operating infrastructure requires fuel supplies and a regulatory system capable of processing the projects.

The six bills pushed to the House attempt to address at least some of the standing issues:

• H.R. 3978, Nuclear REFUEL Act, 44 yes – 0 no. This would simplify licensing for facilities that recycle spent nuclear fuel without isolating plutonium. Qualifying projects could use the single-step fuel-cycle licensing route instead of separate construction and operating approvals. The potential payoff is a clearer path to reusing nuclear material and developing domestic recycling capacity.
• H.R. 9612, American Enrichment Deployment Act, 43-0. Enrichment plants would receive treatment closer to other fuel-cycle facilities, including permission to begin construction before licensing under the same conditions. Developers would build at their own risk, but NRC approval would still be required. The aim is to bring additional domestic enrichment capacity online sooner.
• H.R. 5549, Efficient Nuclear Licensing Hearings Act, 44-0. This removes mandatory hearings when nobody with an affected interest requests one and requires informal procedures for covered hearings. It’s an opportunity to trim legal costs and delays without making public participation disappear.
• H.R. 9613, Nuclear Advisory Committee Reform Act, 41-0. This refocuses the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards on significant, novel reactor-design safety issues and changes membership and term rules. The idea is to reduce repetitive reviews.
• H.R. 9614, NRC Staff Pay Alignment Act, 42-0. The NRC chairman could pay career senior executives up to 110% of the applicable Senior Executive Service pay ceiling. It gives the regulator more room to retain experienced leadership as the industry competes for expertise.
• H.R. 9084, Department of Energy Nuclear Transparency Act, 41-0. DOE would have to announce covered nuclear-facility authorizations and safety-rule changes, and publish safety analyses, within 72 hours. It’s unclear what the real benefit of this one is besides maybe providing more opportunity for nuclear skeptics to complain about faster regulatory actions. More transparency can be a good thing, but the benefit is less clear in this situation.

In July, ranking Democrat Frank Pallone, and even AOC, singled out the advisory-committee overhaul over concerns about weakening safety oversight. Pallone also sought implementation changes to the enrichment bill, while crediting the transparency measure with helping keep bipartisan nuclear legislation moving.

Surprisingly, those concerns never translated into recorded opposition at the full committee.

All this goes to highlight the dramatic change in opinion for the expansion of nuclear energy generating capacity in the US in recent years…

Gallup found in 2025 that 61% of Americans favor nuclear energy, only a single point away from the highest level recorded in the poll’s three-decade history. Gallop then ran a similar poll in April 2026, asking whether the U.S. should put more emphasis on various energy sources…

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An unbelievable travesty of justice occurred last week in Ohio after an illegal alien who killed a loving father and his young son was given an unbelievably lenient deal.

Back on February 28, the Ohio State Highway Patrol revealed that a driver who was later identified as 53-year-old Yvio Michel of Haiti, drove his Great Dane semi-truck northbound on Interstate 75 but failed to maintain sufficient distance as he approached congested traffic. As a result, he smacked into four passenger vehicles and another semi-truck.

Lima, Ohio, resident Hurshel Gipson and his 11-year-old son, Michael, were killed in a massive crash caused by the illegal alien. Gipson’s 45-year-old wife, Amanda, who was driving the family’s 2015 Buick Enclave, was transported to an area hospital with serious injuries.

Fortunately, she managed to survive the incident.

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As the federal government faces hundreds of billions of dollars in estimated annual fraud losses, a bipartisan majority of voters want it to use artificial intelligence to help catch waste and abuse, a new poll found.

In the latest The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, 60% of registered voters said they support using artificial intelligence to help detect fraud, waste or abuse in government programs such as Medicaid. Twenty-seven percent opposed it and 13% were unsure.

The federal government could lose an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion a year to fraud, according to the Government Accountability Office, based on fiscal 2018-2022 data, though the tools meant to catch it have a mixed record.

Support crossed party lines. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans, 74%, backed the use of AI to detect fraud, along with 57% of independents and 48% of Democrats. Even among Democrats, the group most divided on the question, more supported the idea than opposed it.

The question comes as the government expands its use of AI and data matching to flag suspect payments. In fiscal 2025, federal agencies reported an estimated $186 billion in improper payments, about 82% of it from overpayments, concentrated in five programs that include Medicare and Medicaid, the program the poll asked voters about.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services screened 1 billion payments through the Treasury Department’s Do Not Pay system in fiscal 2024 and prevented 363,386 payments worth $2.6 billion.

Of $765.8 billion in overpayments that agencies attributed to data-access problems between fiscal 2021 and 2024, about 73% — or $556.6 billion — stemmed from a failure to access data agencies already possessed, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The scale of outright fraud has been more difficult to measure. The GAO estimate, from 2024, was the first and only government-wide fraud figure of its kind. GAO has said it has no plans to update the spending-side number, having recommended that the Treasury Department develop a method for producing one instead. Treasury had not done so as of July 2026.

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Another week, another historic church reduced to smoke, rubble. The former Saint Agnes Church on Martha Avenue in Toledo, Ohio went up early Saturday morning. The 116-year-old landmark’s steeple came down. The roof burned out. Nearby homes were evacuated. Once again the cause is listed as currently unknown.

Toledo Fire & Rescue was called around 6:30 a.m. Saturday after reports of heavy black smoke pouring from the roof of the vacant church in the Five Points neighborhood. Crews arrived to find the building already heavily engulfed.

Officials warned of collapse risk and alerted people in surrounding homes. The steeple later fell. By Saturday afternoon excavators were tearing the ruined structure down.

Saint Agnes opened in 1910. It was among 29 parishes closed or merged by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo in 2005. The parochial school shut the same year. The diocese no longer owns the property. A charter school now occupies the old school building next door and reported only minor smoke, water, and a cracked window.

One neighbor told local television: “About 6:45 we heard fire trucks and I peeked out my window and it literally looked like the whole street was on fire.”

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Democracy invites despotism. When understood as majority rule, democracy means that fifty-one of every hundred citizens can have their way with the other forty-nine.

“But I want to keep my possessions, weapons, and children.” Too bad, the majority have decided to redistribute your property to those lazy bums over there, disarm you before you can do anything about it, and indoctrinate your children in public schools, so that they learn to resent you and love the State.

Democracy is dangerous without guardrails. Unless a society has a strong sense of moral virtue that fosters personal discipline, duty, and honor, base selfishness becomes the driving motivation behind all political action. Unless certain constitutional protections exist to safeguard each individual’s inviolable rights, democratic majorities devour those rights whenever expedient.

This should surprise no-one. Political philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke described humans’ pre-government “state of nature” as a chaotic, violent clash of self-interest. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” regards self-interest as the engine of free markets. Consequently, it is easy to understand why forms of democracy that are unshackled from both moral and constitutional restraints prompt a society to descend back into a state of nature in which humanity’s worst impulses are again indulged.

When Western leaders speak adoringly of “our democracy,” citizens should prepare to guard their freedoms. My goodness, there is nothing inherently virtuous about democracy. North Korea’s Kim Jong Un runs the most repressive regime on the planet, but his country is known officially as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! China’s Xi Jinping is the general secretary of the oppressive Chinese Communist Party, but his nation remains officially the People’s Republic of China! Dictatorships around the globe claim to govern in the name of the people.

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As he is wont to do, President Donald Trump has posted something to his Truth Social page that has got people talking and speculating this Labor Day holiday weekend.

The POTUS has had space endeavors on his mind in recent weeks, which have included honoring the famed crew of Artemis II and announcing plans to sign “an executive order establishing a U.S. National Space Academy, apparently to feed into the Space Force and NASA,” as my RedState colleague Nick Arama previously reported.

“To continue to lead the world in space exploration and technology, while securing and defending our national interests in space, the Nation must prepare the next generation of astronauts, scientists, engineers, operators, entrepreneurs, civil servants, and warfighters and ensure that they are capable of advancing American interests in space,” Trump noted in the executive order he signed on August 28th.

He added that “it is my Administration’s policy to strengthen the Nation’s space workforce by expanding opportunities to educate and develop the next generation of leaders across the space domain.”

A young girl in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta revealed the harsh realities of mass migration from Africa into the region.

Ceuta, which is on the African continent, has been flooded with migrants in recent weeks, leading to tremendous strain on local residents and a number of shocking crimes.

The schoolgirl cried to a local news crew that the arrivals have made life in Ceuta unrecognizable.

“I want to go to school in peace, but we can’t go,” the child said, per a report from The Daily Wire.

“We’re scared. Very scared. We’re in a very bad way.”

The Daily Wire noted that 70,000 migrants have arrived in Ceuta, swimming around barriers and even climbing perimeter fences.

Ceuta had a population of 83,000 before the incursion — meaning local services cannot handle the migrants.

Silvia Rojas, the chief prosecutor for Ceuta, confirmed that there have been 23 sexual assaults since the beginning of the incursion.

About nine of them involved children.

I’ve talked about the hindrance of sanctuary cities in the past, and for good reason. Sanctuary cities are the biggest protective barrier against the deportation of violent illegal immigrants in this country. In effect, they limit cooperation with local police and city workers and restrict resources for federal agents trying to arrest such criminals.

Now, of course, these leaders who run such cities will say that such policies help build trust between local police and immigrant communities. But based on the increase in crime in certain cities, I think we can put that particular theory to sleep.

For a good while, President Donald Trump has been trying to find a way to fight back against these sanctuary cities and the rules that prevent ICE agents from properly doing their job alongside law enforcement to arrest and deport these dangerous criminals. But Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin believes there is a path forward.

Speaking on The Ingraham Angle last week, Mullin noted a new way to make these sanctuary cities pay for having these ridiculous policies in place – literally.

“Why are we allowing these sanctuary cities to still get funding from the federal government when it comes to, let’s say, their airport, when we’re processing immigration through these international airports? Why would we be processing immigration policies and immigrants into our state or into a city that is a sanctuary state or sanctuary city? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Yeah, me neither. And one particular operation that’s worth mentioning took place in New York over the past couple of months. With Operation Rotten Apple, ICE agents worked vigorously to arrest more than 2,100 illegal aliens, with a number of them being murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and sex offenders.

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“We need your voice,” Abdul El-Sayed told a sex offender who had been sentenced to prison for sexually soliciting what he thought was a 14-year-old girl online and then for “distributing child sexually abusive material and multiple counts of accosting children for immoral purposes.”

The sex offender had reinvented himself as an activist against incarceration and claimed that he had suffered, “I was only allowed to have the type of phone without a browser, and several times had my phone confiscated” and argued that the answer “is to address the root causes of crime… address the real problems… like education, lack of economic opportunity.”

“I hope that you’ll run, and I hope that when you do, you’ll find me out and let me have the opportunity to support,” Abdul El-Sayed endorsed his political activism. “We need your voice, folks who are affected by the experiences that you’ve had uniquely need your voice.”

One of the sex offender’s alleged former victims, said that he had “solicited me as a minor” and that he had “worked with Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed” and together with other politicians made it possible to expunge criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree and “removing rape from 17-24 year old’s permanent record.” The anonymous victim posted that “Abdul helped lead the decarceration movement. He was the president of the non-profit Michigan United.”

Abdul El-Sayed had served as the president of Michigan United aka the Michigan Organizing Project as part of a board with a number of Muslim figures including Aamina Ahmed of AAPI Rising, appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to head Protect Michigan, Senegalese immigrant activist Fatou-Seydi Sarr and Dearborn Magistrate Judge Rula Aoun. One of the organization’s missions was combating ‘mass incarceration’ and it was part of the Michigan Justice Advocacy coalition alongside Safe & Just Michigan where the sex offender worked as a lobbyist and argued for keeping sex offender registries secret and for allowing them to live near schools.

Michigan has one of the largest sex offender lists in the country making the threat worse.

Why was Abdul El-Sayed advocating for a man who had been “distributing child sexually abusive material” and “accosting children” and whose victim has spoken out against El-Sayed?

This was only one of a series of pedophilia scandals and intersections involving El-Sayed.

Earlier in August, Abdul El-Sayed had come under fire for a planned appearance at the Islamic Society of North America, an Islamic group named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror funding trial, alongside numerous figures who had called for violence and terrorism, including Imam Tariq Masood who had praised Hitler and describing having “forced his 13-year-old niece into marriage, and advised his followers to do the same with their young female relatives.”

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Chicago rice futures are on track for their largest annual gain since 2003 as the grain that feeds much of the world becomes increasingly expensive amid an intensifying El Niño and diesel-fuel and fertilizer supply disruptions stemming from turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz and the Russia-Ukraine war. Despite encouraging signals of a potential Black Sea peace deal, which sent wheat futures tumbling earlier today, the risk of a broader food crisis next year remains elevated.

Chicago rice futures have surged more than 50% this year, while benchmark Thai prices have advanced for six consecutive weeks. Bloomberg says the rally reflects growing anxiety that adverse weather conditions and elevated agricultural input costs will curb production across Asia, which dominates global rice output and exports.

India’s monsoon rainfall was 13% below normal as of Wednesday, while US rice-crop conditions were weaker than a year earlier.

BMI commodities analyst Bin Hui Ong said monsoon-dependent producers such as Thailand and Indonesia are particularly vulnerable because dry conditions could coincide with critical planting and early crop development periods.

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Far-left progressive Dr. Karishma Manur, who won’t comment on socialists calling for the abolition of the Senate, has taken the lead over Chris Pappas. Pappas is a more normal Democrat. She is a Democratic Socialist who could become a US senator from New Hampshire.

She is a communist pushing for Medicare for All among other bad ideas.

Here she is blasting the Laken Riley Act and smearing ICE with lies:

She did admit she is a Democratic Socialist, while claiming she’d rather be called a progressive.

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A former Obama administration national security official is now arguing that Washington should treat Chinese data centers as potential military targets if Beijing appears close to achieving artificial general intelligence first.

According to a report from Futurism, Jacob Stokes — once a national security adviser to then-Vice President Joe Biden and later with the Department of Homeland Security — laid out the case in a new paper titled “Superpowers and AGI,” published through the Center for a New American Security.

The South China Morning Post also highlighted the document. Stokes, now deputy director of CNAS’s Indo-Pacific Security Program, starts from the premise that AGI is coming and that the United States cannot afford to finish second.

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Welcome back to “The New Monroe Doctrine,” where I round up what’s going on south of our border in Central and South America and the Caribbean, especially as it relates to the United States.

It’s been a few months since I’ve done this. We’ll call it a summer hiatus. This column usually takes a long time to write — and if I’m being honest, much more time than what I actually earn for it — so it’s a passion project. Unfortunately, my summer has been a bit busy, so passion projects of all sorts had to be sidelined.

And while this is typically a pretty lengthy and comprehensive column, this will be a travel-size pre-Labor Day weekend version, if you will. There were two major stories from last week that I didn’t get around to covering and really didn’t want the week to end without doing so.

What Are We Going to Do with All These Communists? 

“Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty. It’s the greatest threat to our country.” – Donald Trump

While communism seems to be on the rise in the United States, I’ve spent the last year and a half documenting its fall in the rest of the Western Hemisphere (at least south of our border). As the story goes, over the last few years, Latin American and Caribbean countries have been voting more center-right than they did previously. Much of this was driven by cartels, violence, and organized crime. Illegal immigration, economics, an aversion to socialism in general, and being fed up with woke value systems also played a role.

Unfortunately, there remain some countries where people can’t just vote themselves out of it. My hope is that by 2028, there won’t be, or, at least, they’ll be close.

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The U.S. was no stranger to terror attacks before Sept. 11, 2001, both at home and abroad, but none shaped America and the world quite like the attacks on 9/11, which occurred 25 years ago Friday.

The Sept 11 attacks – in which 19 Islamic terrorists hiijacked four U.S. commercial planes, crashing them into both twin towers in New York City, the Pentagon and a Shanksville, Pennsylvania, field after passengers overtook the hijackers – caused the deaths of 2,996 people, including the terrorists.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, a leftist group, the Weather Underground, terrorized the U.S. government agencies, claiming credit for 25 bombings, including explosions at the U.S. State Department, U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, the California Attorney General’s office and a New York City police station. No innocent people were killed in the attacks, while three of their members were killed in an accidental explosion in a New York City townhouse in 1970.

The 1980s saw a major uptick in Islamic-inspired terror attacks targeting Americans overseas, setting their sights on air travel, especially.

During the Lebanese Civil War, Hezbollah, a terror proxy of Iran, was responsible for the April 18, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people and injuring 120.

The same year, the Marine Barracks in Beirut was attacked on Oct. 23, killing 242 and injuring 60 Americans. Up until the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Marine Barracks bombing stood as the deadliest terror attack against the U.S., and the deadliest single-death toll for the Marine Corps since Iwo Jima during World War II in 1945.

A TWA flight flying from Rome to Athens was hijacked by two Hezbollah terrorists on June 14, 1985. One American hostage, a U.S. Navy sailor, Second Class Petty Officer Robert Stethem, was murdered.

A few years later, on April 14, 1988, a car-bomb exploded outside a USO club in Naples, Italy, killing one U.S. sailor, Third Class Petty Officer Angela Simone Santos, and injuring four other American sailors. The group, Jihad Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the U.S. Department of State.

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In 2026, 55% of those with Parts A and B used Medicare Advantage. Program spending was about $1.21 trillion in 2025 and near $1.3 trillion in 2026, up from $666 billion a decade earlier.

Medicare is projected to go bankrupt by 2032, but thanks to the last 18 months of investigations into waste, fraud and abuse at the second-largest entitlement fund, the life of the program may be extended by over a decade, or longer.

“The beautiful thing about taking out fraud is you’re taking out bad guys who are stealing from poor people,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz told Just The News exclusively.

“The American people love it, but you’re also saving the program from insolvency. We project that Medicare will go bankrupt in about six years. We could double that life expectancy just by taking the fraud out of Medicare—forget the rest of it—just from Medicare.”

Under President Donald Trump, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has focused on program integrity rather than a comprehensive solvency package that would close the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund gap.

CMS reports it has blocked more than $1.6 billion in potentially fraudulent laboratory payments since January 2025 and cited $42 billion in FY2025 fraud-prevention savings. Officials, including Oz and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, describe waste, fraud and abuse crackdowns as the main path to stretch Medicare dollars.

The July 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act made 2017-era tax cuts permanent and added a senior deduction, which the 2026 Trustees Report says reduced Hospital Insurance revenue from taxation of Social Security benefits and widened the 75-year shortfall.

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An altercation at a McDonald’s location in Lodi, California, resulted in a worker being shot and another worker being killed by law enforcement.

Police in Lodi, which is in California’s Central Valley, responded to the incident around 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 25, hearing gunshots and screaming inside the McDonald’s when they arrived, per a report from KCRA.

The officers encountered an employee who had been shot.

They also encountered Jonhatan Anguiano, 29, who was fired upon by at least one officer and died at the scene.

Anguiano was employed by the same McDonald’s restaurant.

KCRA reported that the McDonald’s was closed the following day, with a cleaning van observed in the parking lot.

The injured employee was in stable condition, according to KCRA.

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The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s global food-commodity index climbed in August to its highest level since 2022, with the index now gaining momentum to the upside. The upside reinforces warnings from several major Wall Street desks, which we have covered extensively, that global food shortages could materialize next year.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of globally traded food commodities, averaged 133.3 in August, up 1.9% from July, with every major category advancing. Sugar prices surged 11.9%, while wheat gained 2.6% and now stands 15% above year-ago levels.

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Thank God for TRUTH Social! You can get the truth without the liberal media BS getting in the way.

President Trump posted several items today describing the amazing Trump economy and the manufacturing renaissance taking place in America today.

America is ascending, and it’s all because of President Trump, his administration, and their brilliant economic plan.

From Friday’s White House economic report – America added 162,000 jobs in August, triple the estimates!

“America added 162,000 jobs in August — triple economists’ expectations. The private sector has now created over one million jobs under President Trump, whose reindustrialization agenda continues to drive manufacturing and factory construction job growth. America is in the middle of a historic investment boom, and the August jobs report is the latest data point showing how Americans are benefitting from the Trump administration’s pro-growth policies.  The best is yet to come with even more job, wage, and economic growth in store for everyday Americans.”
— White House spokesman Kush Desai

Here’s what you need to know:

• Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs in August — nearly triple economists’ expectations (again) — for the second-largest monthly gain of President Trump’s second term.
• Main Street Wins: More than one million private-sector jobs have been created in President Trump’s second term, while federal employment remains at its lowest share of the workforce on record.
• Factory Comeback: After years of Biden-era decline, manufacturers added 16,000 jobs last month — the strongest monthly gain in three years — and 58,000 jobs this year, powered by huge demand for pharmaceutical and defense production, data center construction, and semiconductor plants.

More on the THRIVING ECONOMY from President Trump’s TRUTH Social account:

GREAT NEWS! Our THRIVING Economy added 162 THOUSAND Jobs in August, in honor of our Great American Workers who we celebrate this (and every!) Labor Day.

This strong number is nearly TRIPLE the predictions of the Bloomberg survey’s so-called “Economists,” who continue to suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

The effects of the Trump Boom can be seen across many Industries. My Administration’s Fair Trade Policies, using a wonderful tool called “TARIFFS,” have reset the Global Economy, bringing Manufacturing Jobs BACK to America, like never before. Factory Construction is BOOMING as Companies take advantage of FULL EXPENSING — One year deduction. Before long, these Factories will be teeming with red, white, and blue-blooded AMERICAN Workers! President DONALD J. TRUMP

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Hate crimes targeting Jewish New Yorkers have surged in 2026, accounting for more than half of all confirmed hate crimes in New York City as Jewish leaders accuse Mayor Zohran Mamdani of helping inflame the environment with his anti-Israel rhetoric.

NYPD statistics show 425 hate crimes were recorded across the city during the first eight months of 2026, compared with 367 during the same period last year, marking an increase of 15.8%.

More than 200 of those incidents targeted Jews, with anti-Jewish hate crimes rising 8% from last year.

The numbers are particularly stark considering Jewish residents represent only about 10% of New York City’s population.

Yet they accounted for more than half of the city’s confirmed hate crimes.

Jewish Leaders Point to Mamdani’s Anti-Israel Rhetoric

The surge has prompted Jewish leaders to place some of the blame directly on Mamdani, whose outspoken hostility toward Israel has been a defining feature of his political career.

Mamdani has accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested.

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Federal immigration authorities arrested three Guatemalan illegal aliens in Tennessee during an investigation into the alleged fraudulent use of stolen identities and Social Security numbers.

ICE officers arrested Magdalena Gomez-Garcia, Elias Gomez-Garcia, and Eulalia Ordonez-Carmelo on August 4.

All three Guatemalan nationals were reportedly already subject to final orders of removal from the United States, Border Hawk first reported.

Magdalena Gomez-Garcia is accused of stealing the identity of a New York resident and using the victim’s Social Security number to obtain employment in Tennessee.

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“to clarify how Federal civil rights laws apply when antisemitic discrimination arises in HHS-funded programs and activities”

Note the last paragraph, where it mentions who this letter is addressed to.

From the HHS website:

OCR Dear Colleague Letter on Civil Rights Protections Against Antisemitic Discrimination

Re: Combating Discrimination Rooted in Antisemitism in HHS-Funded Programs and Activities

Dear Colleagues:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), issues this letter to clarify how Federal civil rights laws apply when antisemitic discrimination1 arises in HHS-funded programs and activities.2 Recipients of HHS Federal financial assistance must administer their programs and activities without discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.  That obligation applies pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) and, in covered health programs and activities, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (Section 1557).

Title VI provides that “[n]o person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”3  Section 1557 separately prohibits discrimination in covered health programs and activities on grounds prohibited by Title VI and other enumerated civil rights statutes.4  Antisemitic conduct may violate Title VI or Section 1557 when the facts establish discrimination on a protected ground, including actual or perceived Jewish ancestry or ethnic characteristics, Israeli national origin, or another protected ground.5

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I. The word

Peter Thiel spent the back half of last year giving private lectures on the Antichrist, and the word has been loose in the discourse ever since. His political reading is the old one. The Antichrist is not a cartoon devil. He is the figure who arrives offering peace and safety, and who uses the fear of catastrophe to install one universal order. In Thiel’s telling that figure is a regulator. He stops technology in the name of survival. The price of the peace is stagnation.

I want the frame. I do not want his conclusion.

The more probable figure is not the one who promises safety. It is the one who promises growth. Most of the world does not lie awake about existential risk from machine intelligence. It lies awake about electricity, logistics, credit, tax collection, and a median citizen who is twenty four and needs work. To that world the universal offer is not a moratorium. It is a stack. Cheap. Financed. Hosted. Present. Already attached to the handsets, the ports, and the power.

That is the soft Antichrist. It does not arrive with a speech about ending history. It arrives as the only AI that can grow your GDP.

I am not writing theology. I am writing underwriting.

II. The comforting story

The market is telling itself a story. The AI race is a contest of models. America builds the best systems. China copies. Europe regulates. Capital therefore clusters around closed labs, chipmakers, and hyperscale cloud. The scoreboard is a benchmark table.

That story is not false. It is incomplete in a way that misprices power. It treats the richest customers as the only customers that matter. It treats evaluations as destiny. It treats national power as a software demo.

I disagree.

The race will be decided by who becomes the default operating system for the economies that still have the most growth left. Those economies will not adopt AI as a lifestyle product. They will adopt it as a growth tool. They will take the stack that is cheap, present, financed, and attached to what they already run. If that stack is Chinese, Beijing does not need to conquer anyone. It only needs to become expensive to leave.

III. Where the mass actually is

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Jeffrey Gahler cited the killings of Rachel Morin and Kayla Hamilton in warning about the law’s potential public safety risks

A Maryland sheriff is warning that the state’s new sanctuary law could put dangerous illegal immigrants back on the streets and leave more American families mourning crimes he says could have been prevented.

“It’s just a matter of time,” Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler told Fox News Digital, warning that the restrictions will lead to more crime and more victims.

Gahler delivered the blunt warning after testifying before a House Judiciary subcommittee about Maryland’s restrictions on cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. He is also leading 16 fellow sheriffs, representing two-thirds of the state, in a lawsuit challenging the Community Trust Act.

The 40-year law enforcement veteran said his greatest fear is that the law will force correctional officers to release an illegal immigrant from jail even after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has flagged that person as a public safety or national security threat.

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A massive water leak in El Reno, Oklahoma has brought new scrutiny to a Bitcoin mining operation that city officials say had been operating without required approvals and in violation of multiple building and safety codes, according to KFOR 4. Three million gallons of water were leaked, according to KOCO ABC.

The facility, operated by Athlon BT LLC, had largely escaped public attention until the leak was discovered. City officials say the company had also installed a fire hydrant without their knowledge, while questions remain about how water was being used at the site.

Athlon originally applied for building permits in 2022. By 2023, however, El Reno had issued a stop-work order after the permits expired and officials identified multiple fire and life-safety code violations. The company was given until December 2023 to address the problems, according to the city.

Instead, officials say Athlon continued construction and eventually began operating the facility despite lacking the inspections and final certificate of occupancy required by the city. Officials have cited problems involving electrical systems, drainage and other areas of the property.

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Democratic Texas Senate Nominee James Talarico was called out for his 2019 vote against a bill banning income taxes in Texas during an interview with CBS Texas, where he collapsed and lied about his stances. 

CBS Texas’s Jack Fink noted that Republicans are attacking him for voting against banning the Texas state income tax as a state legislator in 2019, asking, “Why did you do that?”

When Talarico tried to claim that he voted against it because it was “already banned,” Fink fired back, reminding him, “This would have banned it permanently.”

The proposal in question, which raised the bar by requiring a two-thirds majority in both legislative chambers to impose an income tax, was passed by the Texas House and Senate and then approved by voters on the November 2019 ballot.

Talarico then scrambled, giving a word-salad answer, calling the Republicans’ push to codify the existing legislation “duplicative government overreach at its worst,” further accusing Republicans of “trying to grandstand on an issue.” According to Talarico, lowering taxes is “government overreach” now.

He went on to claim that the legislation “did nothing” and that he has “always” been against income taxes, despite voting against ending income tax. “I’m against an income tax in Texas, always have been. But I’m going to be against any lawmaker in any party who’s just trying to do a stunt on the floor instead of solving problems.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/09/watch-james-talarico-called-during-interview-voting-against/WATCH:

This comes after Talarico openly bragged about his plans to raise taxes and on the “wealthy” during a sit-down panel with liberal billionaire Mark Cuban and liberal Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov, the Gateway Pundit reported.

President Trump’s face is now on a new $1 coin being sold by the US Mint, and collectors will have to shell out more than a buck to get their hands on one.

The Mint is selling the commemorative coins featuring the sitting president as part of its celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, according to its website.

“These coins are also in circulation, so check your pocket change. Collect them today!” the Mint said on X.

The 2026 Semiquincentennial President Donald J. Trump $1 Coin will be released into circulation and available for purchase in bags and rolls, exclusively from the United States Mint.US Mint

The Philadelphia-minted currency is available in 25-coin rolls and 100-coin bags, and priced between $61 and $154.50, the Mint said.

One side features a portrait of Trump alongside the inscriptions “liberty” and “in God we trust” in all caps, along with “1776 ~ 2026.”

The portrait was designed by US Mint Chief Engraver Joseph Menna and was inspired by an official White House photograph taken by Daniel Torok, according to the Mint.

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Talk about summer blues.

The number of Republican-held Senate seats that are toss-ups or lean Democratic has surged from three in May to six as the post-Labor Day midterm homestretch is about to begin, according to a top political analysis.

In May, only the GOP-held seats in North Carolina, Maine, and Ohio were considered toss-ups or leaning towards Democrats. Now, Texas, Iowa, and Alaska have also turned into toss-ups, per the Cook Political Report.

President Trump won each of those states except Maine in 2024 — four of them by double digits.

“I worry about that, for sure,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SC) admitted to Keloland News last week, when asked about the odds of Republicans losing their grip on the upper chamber.

“I’m a realist, and … I don’t ever try and sugarcoat things. I think it’s a competitive environment right now.”

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The city council for Democrat-run Danbury, Connecticut, voted to allow non-citizen migrants to serve as city police officers. The vote was taken in retaliation after federal immigration forces had recently conducted raids in the town.

The city council members said that they voted to allow migrants to serve as cops to send a message to federal immigration officials. The vote was lopsided in favor of supporting illegals as only two of twenty council members voted against the measure, the Hartford Courant reported.

The qualifications for police in the town now include DACA recipients and non-citizen legal residents.

Left-wing city council member Joe Britton claimed that each applicant would still undergo the same background checks as other applicants, and insisted that once in uniform, the migrants will be “on the same team” as natural-born citizen police.

“In the Army, I learned quickly your background doesn’t matter when you put on the uniform. Same team. Same mission. I believe the same applies to our police,” he exclaimed.

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President Trump posted a map showing New Mexico rebranded as “New America” during a rapid-fire Truth Social storm on Sunday.

The post, one of 34 made in less than an hour, showed a map of the southwestern state with the word “Mexico” crossed out and replaced with “America.”

The rebrand would be the latest America-themed name change by the president after he ordered that the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario be rechristened the Gulf of America and Lake America, respectively.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore released a video statement on Saturday, announcing that a ballot initiative to erase the state’s single Republican district was approved by the Maryland Supreme Court and vowing to use the ruling to disenfranchise state Republicans. 

Per Politico:

The Maryland Supreme Court on Thursday gave Democrats a victory in the state’s protracted redistricting battle, allowing the Legislature’s proposed amendment on redistricting that party leaders want to clear the way for a 2028 gerrymander to appear before voters in November.

If approved by voters on Election Day, the measure known as Question 3 will prevent future Democratic redraws from being subjected to strict compactness and geographic standards that undid their last attempt at an 8-0 map in 2022.

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Far-left Maine U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson just told a crowd of mobile-home park residents that the government should be able to take private property when he doesn’t like who owns it.

At a Labor Day weekend campaign stop Saturday at Blueberry Ridge Mobile Village in Wells, Jackson said the state should step in and take over parks owned by out-of-state companies and private equity firms.

“I feel strongly that, if needed, the state should be able to come in, to take these places over,” Jackson told residents gathered in a backyard, according to the Portland Press Herald.

He added that the state should hold the sites until residents can take them over “so you don’t see these private equity (firms) coming in and making a killing on these parks.”

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A Fox Business host was allegedly left permanently disfigured after she was attacked by a pit bull in a Whole Foods store, according to a lawsuit.

Jackie DeAngelis, co-host of The Big Money Show, was shopping at a grocery store in Manhattan in September 2023 when she was mauled by the dog, the filing states.

Whole Foods prohibits pets that are not service animals from entering the store.

However, DeAngelis, 46, is now suing the retailer and accused them in her lawsuit of failing to remove the animal before she sustained ‘severe, serious and permanent personal injuries.’

‘As a result of the occurrence, [DeAngelis] sustained injuries to her body, including significant scarring and disfigurement, together with pain, suffering and emotional distress,’ the lawsuit states.

Police told the New York Post that a black pit bull bit the Fox host on her left hand. By the time officers arrived at the scene, the dog and its owner had fled.

The filing claims that DeAngelis has undergone surgical treatment as a result of the incident and has suffered permanent injuries.

DeAngelis is seeking unspecified damages, alleging that the grocer allowed the dog into the store despite its policy.

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(SALISBURY, MD) – Maryland State Police arrested and charged a Cambridge man on Saturday night after he drove the wrong way on U.S. Route 13 for several miles before colliding with a Maryland State Police patrol vehicle.

The driver of a Ford F-250, identified as Joshua Jorette, 36, of Cambridge, Maryland, was arrested on the scene. He is charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving, possession of a controlled dangerous substance, and other related charges. He is being held at the Wicomico County Detention Center.

A Maryland State Trooper, assigned to the Salisbury Barrack, was transported to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries and has since been released. The driver and a passenger in a Ford Expedition involved in the crash, a 66-year-old male and a 64-year-old female, were also transported by ambulance to a local hospital.

Shortly before 7:30 p.m. yesterday, the Maryland State Police Salisbury Barrack received multiple reports of a Ford pickup truck traveling north in the southbound lanes of the Salisbury Bypass (U.S. Route 13). A trooper near the Johnson Road overpass located the vehicle and attempted to intercept it, but the pickup truck continued northbound and nearly struck his patrol vehicle. The trooper continued to follow the pickup truck and attempted to make another traffic stop. The vehicle then continued to flee north.

A second trooper responding to the incident observed multiple stationary vehicles and their occupants on the shoulder just north of the pickup truck’s location in the area of U.S. Route 13 at Route 50. Recognizing the extreme danger posed to the motorists and pedestrians behind him, the second trooper maneuvered his patrol vehicle directly in the path of the pickup truck driver in another attempt to stop the vehicle. Jorette attempted to maneuver around the patrol vehicle, but the trooper was able to absorb the impact. The crash caused the Ford to spin and strike a Ford Expedition before becoming inoperable.

The investigation remains active and ongoing.

New GiveSendGo donations will go into an attorney trust account as questions linger over how earlier funds were spent

Karmelo Anthony’s family is seeking another $250,000 to fund his appeal after an earlier campaign raised nearly $634,000 and faced questions over how the money was spent, the family announced at a news conference in Dallas, Texas.

The fundraising push came nearly two weeks after a judge denied Anthony’s request for a new trial. His family and supporters, including attorney Russell Wilson, used the Dallas news conference to outline the appeal.

Anthony, 19, was sentenced to 35 years in prison in June after a jury convicted him of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas. He has appealed and says he cannot afford to hire an attorney for the appeal.

The new fund is intended to cover legal fees, experts and other costs associated with challenging Anthony’s conviction, Wilson said.

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In the old days, a criminal that had committed an extremely violent crime would go to prison and stay there. That made society safer, and it deterred others that were thinking of doing the same thing. But now in many areas of the country things are completely different. Way too often, violent criminals with very long arrest records are put back into the streets over and over again.

Of course what happens next is entirely predictable. Lots of extremely violent crimes are being committed by hardened thugs that have committed extremely violent crimes before. This is occurring far more frequently in blue states than it is in red states. Unfortunately, those that are in positions of power in our blue states never seem to see the error of their ways.

Earlier today, I came across a story that really upset me…

An Oregon leftist who wrote a manifesto, built Molotov cocktails, ordered an AR-15, and planned to stalk ICE agents home, murder them, and take their heads as trophies is going back into society.

Rayden Tanner Coleman, 19, of Columbia City, Oregon, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of unlawful manufacture of a destructive device.

As part of the sweetheart agreement, prosecutors dismissed 13 other charges, including attempted first-degree domestic terrorism, second-degree domestic terrorism, attempted assault, and several destructive-device offenses.

If he had been convicted of all the charges, he would have been in prison for a really, really long time.

But instead he got an absolutely absurd sweetheart deal that includes no time in prison except for time that he has already served…

Coleman must continue receiving mental-health treatment, undergo evaluations, surrender the weapons seized by authorities, and pay $550 in fines and fees.

Judge Michael T. Clarke sentenced him to 36 months of supervised probation and 75 days in jail with credit for time already served. That means zero additional days behind bars.

That’s it.

Money could have gone to unindicted terror funding co-conspirators.

Last September 11, every Muslim in Congress and some of their radical allies teamed up on a congressional resolution demanding reparations to Muslims for their suffering after 9/11.

House Resolution 741, introduced a week after the anniversary of September 11, claimed that “in the aftermath of September 11, 2001” Muslims “experienced hate and were targeted by the government” and called for “various forms of relief to support those affected.”

The money would have potentially gone to Islamic groups listed as terror co-conspirators.

While the resolution did not specify which “community-based organizations” that “center the experiences and demands of Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern” and others would have benefited from Congress “allocating resources”, potentially millions of dollars, the official endorsees of the resolution included the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an Islamic terrorist funding trial raising the possibility of these 9/11 ‘reparations’ going not just to Islamic groups, but even to those linked to Islamic terrorism.

Other Islamic groups that endorsed and could have potentially benefited from the ‘9/11 Muslim reparations bill’ including Muslim Advocates, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Muslims for Just Futures and the Muslim Justice League had their own ties to unindicted co-conspirators in terror funding. These include CAIR and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) where key figures had championed violence and whose former officials included an unindicted coconspirator in the World Trade Center bombing as its former vice president raising the troubling possibility that ‘9/11 reparations’ money could have benefited advocates and organizations tied not only to Islamic terrorism but even to the original WTC attack which had been carried out by the nephew of the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

The four Muslims in Congress at the time had joined forces to equate the Americans killed in the 9/11 attacks with the Muslims, including Al Qaeda terrorists, they claimed had suffered at the hands of the United States of America. The congressional resolution complained about “overreaching policing, surveillance, and criminalization policies”, “discriminatory searches and seizures of Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern” and others, as well as “torture at Guantanamo Bay to extrajudicial drone strikes” against Al Qaeda members.

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